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Hello and welcome to In Wisconsin.
I'm Patti Lowe.
This week follow the twists and turns involved
in the story of this threatened species.
Will environmentalists and
developers reconcile conflicting interests.
Meet a couple who looked forward
to retirement only to now discover they may
lose everything.
Hello, can you hold on?
Hello, hello, we got a lift.
And join this UW professor as
he tries to inspire a group often written off by society.
We'll also take you on a drive down one of the beautiful
rustic roads found in Wisconsin.
Major funding for In Wisconsin is provided by the people of a
lion's energy who brings safe, reliable and environmentally
friendly energy to keep homes, neighborhoods and life
in Wisconsin running smoothly.
A lion's energy offering
energy saving ideas on the web.
UW Health providing specialty and primary care for
all ages throughout Wisconsin.
Information on UW Health physicians and clinics and
on University Wisconsin Hospital is available on the
web and Wisconsin's technical colleges providing
local education for the crucial occupations essential
to our communities.
Wisconsin's technical colleges communities
first. Additional support for coverage of the great
likes is provided by the Wisconsin Coastal
Management Program and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.
Let's say you have an animal that's scarce enough to
be added to the state's threatened species list.
It's a challenge in itself to recover a species
but now up the ante and imagine that the species
is only found in the most developed and developing
area of the state.
Joanne Garrett reports.
South Eastern Wisconsin it's in an explosion of development,
expanding ever outward from Milwaukee.
It's a veritable course of construction
and it's creating jobs, housing and adding to the
tax base of communities like this one New Berlin.
That's part of this story.
There's another part.
It can be found in some of the last patches of
South Eastern Wisconsin that haven't been developed.
But not easily.
Nothing in that one.
Josh Copfer is an independent herpetologist, a snake guy.
On contract conducting a study for the Department
of Natural Resources, he's looking on some of these
last patches for a snake.
Onto the next drift fence which hopefully will not disappoint.
The object of his pursuit is called the
Butler's Garders Snake.
It's on the state's threatened species list and though this
herpetologist beats the bushes.
What's up with that mud there?
Look. And ridses traps of more
common critters.
Rodents. Still no snakes.
The snake proves rare, even on a site
that has been designated as prime habitat for the
Butler's. We're almost through 30 other traps
right now and we haven't caught a Butler's yet.
Fortunately for us and for you the
viewer, he saved this guy caught in a trap the previous day.
This is the Butler's Garders Snake.
This is the the snake in question.
Nonpoisonous. The Butler's grows up to 15 inches and
unfortunately in Wisconsin.
It seems to live only in the southeast and
no you can't move them.
Scientists believe that they won't thrive in
other parts of the state.
Basically it's being pushed into smaller and smaller areas and
now those areas are being completely eliminated and
so that's really the issue.
The story starts nearly 10 years ago.
George Meyer, former head of the DNR,
now president of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation.
In 1997 some of the leading herpetologists petitioned the
Department of Natural Resources and asked that the Butler's
being included on the state's threatened species list.
It's hard enough to recover a species that lives in
a relatively wild place.
It's really tough in a more urban environment which
brings us back to New Berlin and their city center project.
It's a mixed-use development begun in the late 90s and
originally backed by the city and two developers
and home to the Butler's Garders Snake.
The overall development is around
75 acres.
Great Kessler is a community development analyst in
the city's planning department and was intimately involved in
the city center and planning for and around the snake.
We were sort of finding our way.
It was early in the process and there were problems.
The biggest was where to site this road.
It's like when you go through
the alternative analysis is can the road go there
can the road go here can the road go there can it
took about two two and a half years all because of
the snake.
They lost time and one of their developers.
So we struggled through those two two and a half years and
at that time the developer the LLC that was involved
in the northern portion here went bankrupt.
The carrying costs on this
particular development and the land values here
in Waukeshaw County the carrying costs are quite
expensive are quite extensive so I think it
was incredibly frustrating from the city's perspective.
Other communities echoed New Berlin's concerns and in 2004
the legislature got involved.
The joint committee for review of administrative rules was
approached by the builders in the state and southeast
Wisconsin saying this is causing us major
problems. In response the DNR came up with a
recovery plan.
Snake habitat was divided into three
tiers and the lower quality tier one and tier two
sites could be freely developed no restrictions.
Cap for another's felt that was a huge concession.
That's really unprecedented for a threatened species
to say well look you can develop what turns out to
be thousands of acres of Butler's garden snake habitat.
But the DNR felt that the snake needed 65 tier
three sites high quality habitat and only 31 of those
are on public lands.
On the remaining tier three
sites developers could develop but they would have
to make concessions employ snake mitigation techniques
that might involve burning prairies to restore
habitat or installing fencing or sometimes it might
involve much more.
Gary Casper is a herpetologist
and an expert on Butler's garden snakes.
Right here we see a graphic example
of snake habitat being bisected by a new road.
So this is a snake habitat that was
a tier three classification.
Here they modified a water conveyance pipe so
that it can also serve as a wildlife tunnel with
light at the end of the tunnel for the snakes to
slither toward and rocks on the ground to slither over.
It's sometimes called a connecting corridor and
it's part of a trend in our developing world.
These kinds of wildlife tunnels have been used in a number of
highway projects throughout the world.
The leaders have been the Florida Department
of Transportation that's built tunnels for
cougars and tortoises.
But cougars and tortoises have
a few more champions, a bit more charisma than snakes.
It's one of the reasons why this these groups of animals
have been so understudied.
July of 2006, a new twist.
The Butler's was back in the headlines.
The same committee, the joint committee for the
review of administrative rules, voted to suspend the
snake status as a threatened species by October 1st
unless the DNR complied with a list of changes
drafted by the committee.
It was an unprecedented turn.
This would be the first time that an animal
has taken off either a state or federal threatened
endangered species list for non-scientific
reasons, for economic or political reasons.
Turn again, it was pointed out that if the
snake loses its state protection and its numbers continue to
decline, another character enters the store, the feds.
I've been on conference calls with four or five
of the top experts and Butler's in the United
States. They are to a person gravely concerned about
the future of the species.
And clearly believe it could be put on the
federal list legitimately.
And if the Butler's goes on the federal list, rules about the
snake could get even tougher.
No one wants to do that.
We should try to solve our own problems in our state.
And they may have.
In yet another turn, developers,
the DNR and environmentalists have met over the last
month to create a kind of business plan for the
snake that they hope to present to the committee.
It's never been about whether we should preserve the snake
and the habitat.
Of course, we should.
It's a threatened species within the
state. The issue that we had is there a process.
There didn't seem to be a process.
There wasn't predictability.
You know, candidly, I think the development in the industry
is a legitimate position.
Is this going to take 20 years?
Are we going to have to deal with it?
Or is it five years or three years
or whatever?
The next turn is up to the committee in this story
of the Butler's Garders snake.
It's a process kind of issue, which often is in
the most attractive kind of story.
But really, behind the scenes, that's what
the fact saves species.
People of goodwill come together with
resources to say, yeah, this is a problem.
Let's solve it.
As for the next chapter in the story of the
Butler's Garders snake, the ball is now in the court
of the legislative committee.
The group of developers and environmentalists and DNR
officials that created the plan mentioned in Joanne's report,
hope their proposal will be considered by the committee.
We'll let you know what happens.
It's time for this week's What's the Plan report where we ask
the candidates for governor to address some of the issues
facing Wisconsin citizens?
This week, Frederica Freiberg introduces us to a
retired couple with an uncertain future.
Many of us look forward to retirement,
and certainly all of us hope to be financially
secure when we retire.
Well, despite putting away a
nest egg, this couple found that rising taxes may
lower the boom on their plan for the sunset years.
It seems unfair.
You save your money for years so that
you can stay in your house for those extra few years.
But Diane and Don Brockman don't know how much longer
they can afford to stay in the house they built 42
years ago.
The home they raised six children in,
home to so many memories over the years.
The Brockman's built their house
for $19,000, similar ones in their neighborhood on
Madison's East Side are now valued in the $200,000
range. The problem for this couple paying
their property taxes on a fixed income.
An income they say that since they
retired five years ago, averages about $26,000 a year.
Their 2005 property tax bill came in at nearly $4,300,
$4,275.03 to be exact.
The sixth of our income is going for our
taxes. So what are we living on?
If we have to spend the sixth of our income, what
are we going to live on?
According to tax records, over the last four years,
the bill has jumped more than $300.
But last year, the Brockman's actually
paid less than the year before by $30.
They say it's still a big number,
a number that's taking a big bite out of their
retirement years.
I don't like seeing my money
being spent on taxes.
One, I'd like to be out traveling and doing
different things and going places, but you have to
limit what you do.
The Brockman say they'd like
to see a new law to reduce the property tax burden
for retirees living on fixed incomes.
But to tie property taxes to income, we're told,
would require a change in the state constitution.
That's an unlikely change that in any case,
wouldn't come soon enough to ease the Brockman's burden.
I think that we all eventually end up selling our home
and probably renting just to avoid the taxes.
Taxes and especially property taxes are a hot button political
issue. With that in mind, we ask the candidates
for governor, what's the plan when it comes to
property taxes in Wisconsin?
Incompan Democratic candidate, Jim Doyle.
I signed in the law the tightest property tax limits
in the history of the state.
And an average home property tax
has raised, went up less than 1% last year.
And in the coming December, the increase
will be even less than that likely to be a 0%
increase. And that's done by making sure that the
state is stepping in and helping to fund more
of the local services.
So why are two thirds funding for schools is so
important? Jim Doyle says he also wants to further
reduce property taxes by giving incentives to
local governments if they lower their costs through
efficiencies like consolidation of services.
Republican candidate for governor, Mark Green.
The truth of the matter is, taxes have taken up
more of your income today than they were four years
ago. And as a result of the governor's veto
of a property tax for he's not once but twice
but three times, your property tax is $600 million
higher. And the property tax burden is driving
seniors out of their homes.
It's driving young people out of the state.
We have to lower the tax burden.
Mark Green says he wants to root out state government
waste, starting by spending less on information
technology contracts.
Wisconsin Green Party candidate Nelson
Eisman favors universal health care and fully
funded education, including college tuition.
He has this to say about property taxes.
I have great news for the people of Wisconsin.
I'm eliminating the property tax on your primary
residence. Gone.
How will we pay for the programs that I
describe? By going back to an idea that Bob LaFalla
brought to the state when he was a third party
candidate 100 years ago.
We need a progressive income tax.
Nelson Eisman says anyone earning over
$250,000 would pay a 10% premium on their income tax.
Theatrics aside, we took the candidates plans to an
expert on taxing and spending.
Dale NAP is a researcher for the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.
Well, there are many ways.
NAP says Doyle's plan works in the short run by
relying on shifting of funds.
The big change came in school districts where we
added significant school aids and you combined
that with the revenue caps that are already in
place. School levies went down a half a percent.
School levies are 40% of your property tax bill.
That was what really kept the overall number in
check. There was a price we had to pay in that we took
money from the transportation fund to fund that.
And now we're finding that the transportation fund really is
underfunded. And so, you know, there was a price we had
to pay for that freeze.
You've got everything from.
Green favors freezes, like those proposed in the
Republican legislature, revered to as the
taxpayer bill of rights or tabour.
Even under the strictest tabour that we
saw, you know, property taxes would have still gone up.
They would have grown much slower, but they
would have still gone up.
Some people think that the only way that we can really
limit property taxes is by the state imposing limits
on local governments.
That goes against, you know, years and years of
really philosophy of local control in the state.
NEP says this on Green's plan to
root out wasteful government spending.
There's probably less of that at the state level than
there was several years ago.
So it's a way probably to generate some dollars,
but it's not going to be, I don't think it's going
to be significant dollars.
And then the expert comes to the Nelson-Eisman idea
for property taxes.
Gone. To get rid of the property
tax completely is going to be a problem.
I don't know how you're going to
fund local governments.
And again, if you start thinking about the state
funding local governments, you know, then you have
a problem with in terms of local governments.
It's not our money.
We don't have to worry.
We're not accountable for raising the
money. So that's you have an accountability issue.
As for Eisman's idea for taxing the rich at a premium, NEP
says they'll leave the state.
You're going to lose more of the top earners.
And those are the kinds of people that ultimately
end up investing in small businesses, investing
in new research, etc.
And so I think it would be
detrimental to lose that.
So having already the highest income, one of the
highest income taxes in the country and then
bumping that up, I think would cause other problems.
One problem Don and Diane Brockman have is a
feeling that government isn't accountable for
their hard earned money.
You can find out more about the candidates by logging
on to WisconsinVote.org.
Our online election year resource.
Our final report this week is about second chances.
UW-Ashkosh professors, Stephen Richards,
is dedicated to the idea that higher education may be a route
to turning your life around.
Reporter Andy Soth found that Richards' passion is
inspired by a life-changing experience of his own.
About four miles from the UW-Ashkosh campus is the Ashkosh
Correctional Institution.
But for these inmates, it must seem a world apart.
You've seen a lot of guys leave this prison and they come back.
Criminology professors, Stephen Richards, is
trying to bridge that gap.
I want you to understand that this program, which is
inviting convicts to college, is our way of inviting
you upon leaving prison to go to the university.
Richards has started this pilot program, a
non-credit introduction to college taught by
senior UW-Ashkosh criminal science majors.
I'm surprised how at ease I feel in here.
I thought there'd be more of attention between
me and my classmates, but there really isn't.
The fact that they just want to help so much and
that they're doing as much as they are to help
get the ball going is exciting.
So many people just spend so much time on nonsense
or how they're going to do this when they get out.
And really all you hear coming out of their mouth
is how they're going to come right back here.
So to find some sort of stimulating conversation,
what are your real dreams?
What would you really like when you get out of here?
You know what we mean with them.
We don't get a lot of that.
You got to plan a new future.
When you get out of here, you go to a university where
Richards believes higher education is the best
way to keep convicts from returning to prison.
It is in fact his life story.
When I look back over my life, I'm not
surprised I'm a professor.
I'm more surprised that I had that that detour.
Raised in a Milwaukee orphanage, Richards graduated
from high school in 1969 and enrolled at UW-Madison.
During the days of rage, the anti-war demonstrations.
But we thought we could change the world and
maybe in some ways we did.
At least for myself, it had provided detours.
And I think I sort of departed from the mainstream.
The departure included dealing marijuana.
Eventually Richards was caught up in a federal sting operation,
charged with conspiracy to buy.
I was convicted of distributing marijuana.
I pled not guilty.
Had a jury trial, an appellate case, then a Supreme Court case.
I pled not guilty, but I'm not innocent.
I mean, I was involved.
Richards received a nine-year sentence, doing time at
several federal prisons.
So it was a shock for me to see beatings and death.
To see gun towers shooting people.
To see suicides.
At that time, parole was more commonly granted.
So I walked out after three years and was okay.
But if I had been there eight or nine, no.
Instead, he spent those years after prison, earning
a doctorate in criminology.
It would be a lot easier for me to have gotten a PhD
in English or chemistry or, you know, never have
to talk about it again.
But because I teach courses and corrections,
I have to.
Just to be honest, I have to.
So when they read the felony question, they're
looking right at you.
Richards has brought that same honesty to his field,
leading a movement called convict criminology.
Convict criminology group is now something like three dozen
ex-cons or now professors.
Convict criminology brings the prisoners perspective
to the study of corrections.
And it also encourages convicts to consider higher education.
Upon serving their time, paying their debt to society,
we would want them when they walk out of prison to have
a fair chance to make it, to rejoin us in the community.
And one of the ways to do that is to go to college.
Just to know that you don't have to go straight to
construction when you get out, you don't have to be a janitor.
You can be a college professor and be a felon.
But you want to read serious books, college-level material.
And I know it's hard.
I mean, I had to do the same thing.
It's hard.
Oh, I know there's a lot more possibilities now.
I mean, thanks to them, it's my whole world.
There's that have been small now.
There's that have been on parole.
Now it's going to be, I have a lot more.
I've rose to take that I can better my future.
I try to stay focused in that way.
Education is the only thing that's going to keep me
from coming back here.
Instilling that hope is what drives Richard's work
as a convict criminologist.
I met people in matching security prisons
who became friends and people who I still think of.
And I wonder if they're still alive, if they ever,
if they ever got out.
There are some nights when I see their faces.
I see the cellblock.
I see 500 men and cages.
And if they read something I write, or they see me on TV,
they might remember me.
They might remember that there is a way out.
That there was a life after prison.
You can find out more about the convict criminology program
by logging onto our website at www.wpt.org/inwisconsin.
Information on all of this week's reports can
also be found there.
That's our program for this week.
For Inwisconsin, I'm Patty Low.
See you next time.
[Music]
Major funding for Inwisconsin is provided by
the people of a lient energy who bring safe, reliable,
and environmentally friendly energy to keep homes,
neighborhoods, and life in Wisconsin running smoothly.
A lient energy offering energy saving ideas on the web.
UW Health providing specialty and primary care for all
ages throughout Wisconsin.
Information on UW Health Physicians and Clinics
and on University of Wisconsin Hospital is
available on the web.
And Wisconsin's Technical Colleges providing
the people of Wisconsin with the knowledge and
skills they'll need for the economy of tomorrow.
Wisconsin's Technical Colleges Communities First.
Additional support for coverage of the Great Lakes
is provided by the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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