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Two reviews out of dozens of areas

Tom Kertscher
By Tom Kertscher September 10, 2014

During his 2010 campaign for governor, Scott Walker said he wanted to ensure the state was "prioritizing expenditures and getting maximum value for our sportsmen and women."

His pledge: To require annual audits of the state's fish and wildlife account -- money dedicated to support fishing and hunting.

In October 2012, Walker announced the first in a series of annual audits was complete.

That review was done on one part of the fish and wildlife account, the Department of Natural Resources-run Waterfowl Stamp Program. The program has generated some $14 million to support the hunting of ducks and geese since 1978.

The review -- not an audit, per se -- found find that revenue from the sale of waterfowl stamps "appeared to be stated accurately"; and disbursements of the funds "appeared to be in accordance" with state law, the firm said.

When we last checked on this promise, in September 2013, we rated it Stalled.

Since then, a review was done on the pheasant stamp program. The findings were similar to those in the waterfowl stamp review.

But the two reviews are only incremental progress toward meeting the promise Walker made of a series of audits being done on an annual basis. There are several dozen types of resident and out-of-state hunting and fishing licenses and stamps sold by the state.

With less than four months left in his term, we rate this a Promise Broken.

Our Sources

Email interview, Gov. Scott Walker press secretary Laurel Patrick, Sept. 3, 2014