A GOP state lawmaker is wary of the words of visiting Obama administration officials. US Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visited the LaCrosse Interstate Fair for a Rural Tour stop Thursday.
State Representative Mike Huebsch is welcoming of any cabinet members who come to Wisconsin but compares the two visiting the fair to "snake oil salesmen." The West Salem Republican says he disagrees with the officials' stances on federal stimulus having benefited western Wisconsin. He says too much of the transportation money went to major metropolitan projects in the eastern part of the state. But there are roads all over the state that should be tended too as 80 percent of all jobs are within four miles of a major highway.
Huebsch also there needs to be more money invested into intellectual capital such as developing broadband capabilities in rural areas.
The former Assembly speaker says in the latest Wisconsin budget, stimulus money was treated as replacement dollars to fund bloated state programs.
About 200 people attended the gathering where Secretary Vilsack claimed it’s getting easier for farmers to get direct federal loans. 760-million dollars has been made available for USDA ownership-and-operating loans that were previously approved, but were not funded until now. Vilsack says the new loan money will clear up millions in backlogs for about four-thousand farm loans that were approved but not funded.
