Water Program Legislation

I recently had the honor of testifying on my bill that aims to improve the Safe Water Loan Program and the Clean Water Fund Loan Program by lessening the administrative burdens on water and wastewater utilities.

Over the past 30 years, both programs have been tremendously successful in providing below-market interest rate loans to help fund water and wastewater utility projects that are necessary to comply with state and federal regulations. These projects make it possible for municipalities to both protect the environment and assure that their residents have access to safe water.

With a 20 percent state match to capitalize on federal funding, Wisconsin has been able to offer more than $5 billion over the decades.

While local utilities continue to utilize these programs to complete projects throughout Wisconsin, the Department of Natural Resources and various stakeholders have acknowledged the need to update state statutes to give applicants more clarity.

My bill, which I authored with Sen. Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay, accomplishes just that.

To read all of the testimony that was presented at the public hearing, please click on this link.

Potawatomi Tower

I thought now would be a good time to give everyone an update on our efforts to restore the observation tower at Potawatomi State Park.

If you recall, back in May, the Department of Natural Resources reversed their position that the tower was beyond repair and needed to be demolished when they were presented with a new engineering report. At that time, they committed to repairing the tower.

We were told that the proposal was supposed to be on the agenda of last month's Wisconsin State Building Commission meeting. However, we have since learned that it was never placed on the agenda because apparently there was some miscommunication between the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Administration.

It is important to point out that the Legislature has no authority over state agencies – 0nly the governor's executive branch has control over them. As such, it has been rather difficult for us to get any answers on the cause of the hold up.

We will continue to seek that information, but please know that state agencies are often much more responsive to contacts made by constituents. If you would like further details on the future of the project, we recommend that you reach out to the DNR, DOA, State Building Commission or governor's office.

Hopefully we can keep the momentum going and get the clearance we need to move forward on restoring the tower. Some local experts believe that it may be too late to save the historic structure if we do not repair it soon.

Tourism Budget

As one of Wisconsin's most prominent tourism destinations, our area should benefit significantly from the 2021-23 state budget.

First, the two-year spending plan releases an additional $1.5 million to the Department of Tourism for marketing purposes. This is on top of the approximately $150 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding that is going toward bolstering our state's tourism industry.

Secondly, the budget provides one-time funds of $700,000 to create an Office of Outdoor Recreation. This will be especially helpful for our region, seeing as Door County has the most state parks of any county in Wisconsin. 

While tourism in our area has rebounded nicely, much of the state has not been as fortunate. We are hoping that the budget will be a contributing factor in getting our tourism economy back to pre-pandemic levels.

According to Travel Wisconsin, more than 113 million visitors spent $13.7 billion in our state in 2019. That generated $1.6 billion in state and local tax revenue. Without those traveler taxes, each Wisconsin household would have had to pay an additional $687 to maintain existing services.