Wisconsin State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk is facing scrutiny after he voted to ban Board of Commissioners of Public Lands staffers from working on climate change issues on state time, but Adamczyk defends the move.
Matt Adamczyk. Wisconsin Office Of the State Treasurer.
“We are the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, but realistically we are a trust fund,” said Adamczyk. “We are supposed to be ... making money so that we can give the money back to our beneficiaries.”
There are nine employees working for the state agency overseeing public lands. Adamczyk believes issues like climate change should be left to agencies with more resources.
“The DNR has 2,000 employees. If there’s one agency that’s going to work on global warming and climate change, it shouldn’t be us, it should be the DNR,” he said.
Secretary of State Doug La Follette told Wisconsin Public Radio last week that the ban is “silly” and that it makes the state look foolish on what he called a “major scientifically-documented issue.” Adamczyk disagreed, saying this move is not a significant one.
“We have not really done anything. We’re just telling our state employees to focus on what they’re supposed to be focusing on,” said Adamczyk.
Meanwhile, according to Adamczyk, board commissioners such as himself, La Follette, and Attorney General Brad Schimel are allowed to take on issues of climate change if they so choose because they are the elected officials in charge of the agency. The nine other employees, he said, need to focus specifically on making money.