News

Wisconsin’s Governor proposes more road, water, conservation funding

Wisconsin’s Governor Tony Evers says he will propose additional road, water, and conservation funding in his state budget proposal.

Evers says he wants to continue the Agricultural Road Improvement Program, which sent 150-million dollars to local governments to improve local roads. “We’re going to keep building on our work in the next budget to make sure farmers and producers and the industries can get from point A to point B safely and can get the product to market.” The first ARIP program was authored by Senator Howard Marklein and Representative Travis Tranel two years ago.

Evers says he wants to invest 145 million dollars to expand access to safe drinking water and strengthen standards for six PFAS contaminants. “This plan also holds harmless innocent landowners like farmers who unknowingly spread biosolids that contain PFAS on their land and invests seven million dollars to help clean up biosolid contamination, which is really important.”

Evers also wants to add one million dollars to the existing million-dollar two-year budget for producer-led watershed groups to expand conservation practices. “Annual interest in the program continues to exceed the program budget, with this funding cycle, it receiving the highest number of requests in program history, which is outstanding.”

The Governor’s budget will also include funding for a new pilot Pilot Dairy Agricultural Research Investment Now Grant program, and continued support for meat and dairy processing grants, supply chain improvements, and food security programs.

Overall, Evers plans to include over 80-million dollars in agriculture-related investments in his state budget proposal. 

The Democratic Governor’s budget will have to get past the Republican-controlled Legislature and its Joint Finance Committee before going back to the Governor for his signature.