According to a memo from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, a budget plan to eliminate about 30 Department of Natural Resources scientist and educator roles could cost the agency dozens more positions.
The memo produced on Tuesday notes that if the DNR creates layoff groups consisting of scientists and educators, state law would require the agency to eliminate all limited-term employee positions in those classifications before it could eliminate permanent positions. According to the memo, the DNR currently has 95 LTE positions in its science bureau and educator program.
During a news conference on Thursday, several scientists called for the Joint Finance Committee to adjust the budget provision that cuts the full-time science positions. Steve Born, a UW-Madison emeritus professor, called the measure “a step in the wrong direction.”
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“The loss of that knowledge base that informs natural resources decision making — it doesn’t determine it, but it informs it — will start to erode the quality of the decisions we make, and it will have adverse impacts on our fisheries, adverse impacts on wetlands, adverse impacts on water quality in the state,” said Born.
The Joint Finance Committee might consider the cuts in a meeting on Friday.
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