Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton Calls on Legislative Leadership to Lead Veto Override of Independent DNR Secretary Bill

MADISON - Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton today issued the following statement regarding Governor Jim Doyle’s veto of Assembly Bill 138, also known as the Independent DNR Secretary Bill.

“I join countless residents across the state in our dismay with Governor Jim Doyle’s decision to reverse a long-held position and veto the Independent DNR Secretary bill, AB 138.  This bill would restore the institutional framework to ensure that a non-partisan, independent DNR Board of citizen experts would make decisions using the best data with full accountability, not to a single person to whom they owe their job, but to the people of Wisconsin, whose lives and livelihoods depend on it. 

Today, I call on legislative leadership in both parties to responsibly represent the best interests of their constituents, and organize a veto override.  Governor Doyle’s veto went against the grain of eight decades of Wisconsin’s proud tradition of natural resource stewardship provided by a DNR Board that independently elects its Secretary.  We need to be able to trust that decisions that define business success and quality of life are data-driven by trustworthy data, and detached from political patronage. 

Job creation in a clean energy economy, Milwaukee’s goal to achieve status as the world’s fresh water research and technology center, and the possibility of a prosperous outlook in every corner of the state all pivot on the credibility that is profoundly attached to the integrity of the DNR.  Wisconsin’s legislature has the opportunity to underwrite a stronger state economy and restore public confidence in accountability for our tax dollars and protection of our shared assets and resources..

I urge my colleagues in the State Senate and Assembly to override this veto to ensure science-based environmental policy for years to come.”

Lt. Governor Lawton has long supported efforts to restore DNR secretary appointment authority to the Natural Resources Board. On August 13, 2009, she testified in support of the bill before the Senate Committee on Transportation, Tourism, Forestry, and Natural Resources.”