DNR committee votes to award controversial $500K grant to politically connected group

[hue]

http://journaltimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/b1d0fa70-445f-5873-ba11-79842a621854.html



A state Department of Natural Resources committee voted 4-1 Thursday to recommend approval of a controversial $500,000 grant to the politically connected United Sportsmen of Wisconsin Foundation amid questions about whether the group is qualified to carry out the work.

In an interview after the meeting, Mark LaBarbera, the lone member of the Sporting Heritage Grant Committee to vote against the grant, said “I felt that it didn’t pass the smell test.”

The decision now goes to DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp, who has no discretion but to OK the grant, said Tim Andryk, the agency’s chief legal counsel. Andryk told the committee that the provision passed as part of the state’s two-year budget requires the secretary to issue the grant by Tuesday.

The law requires DNR to provide one grant of $500,000 every two years to a nonprofit organization to provide education to and recruit people to engage in hunting, fishing and trapping. United Sportsmen, which is affiliated with the National Rifle Association, was the only group that applied.

The group also has ties to outgoing Senate Majority Leader Scott Suder, R-Abbottsford, who sponsored the measure. Among the board members of United Sportsmen are former Sen. Pam Galloway and Suder’s former chief of staff, Luke Hilgemann, who is a lobbyist for Americans for Prosperity...

....Rep. Katrina Shankland, D-Stevens Point, a member of the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources and Sporting Heritage, called the grant an example of "political cronyism" because it was "rigged" to exclude other conservation and outdoor sporting groups in favor of United Sportsmen.

"With this grant, Republicans are asking taxpayers to subsidize the salaries of their donors and lobbyists," she said. "This is an insult to the taxpayers’ trust, and an outrage for dedicated sportsmen across Wisconsin.”

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[Scuba]

1. Well of course they did. We should change the name from "Madison" to "Kickback City".

[Pharaoh]

2. Corporate thugs

could be a new catch phrase?