The Amber Alerts for missing and abducted children are broadcast statewide on an interconnected system of transmitters maintained by Public Broadcasting.
Gene Purcell, interim Director of the Educational Communications Board, says while no one is saying Amber Alert would be outright killed it would be threatened if maintenance is interrupted on transmitters and the interconnection. And Purcell says that will happen if the proposed cuts go through.
But republican representative Mark Gundrum (R-New Berlin) says Amber Alert is safe. He accuses the public broadcasters of using scare tactics just to keep their funding.
Gundrum says UW administrators and the mayor of Milwaukee are doing the same thing just so they can keep "drinking from the government trough" at taxpayers expense.
But Purcell says the threat is real. If the budget cuts go through as proposed, someone will eventually have to come up with a different way to issue the alerts.
AUDIO: Jim Dick reports ( 1:04 MP3 )
