Tag Archives: Scott Walker

The state budget

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A few slices from the JS and then a question:

First this:

Madison – GOP lawmakers Friday rolled back $116 million in proposed cuts to schools over the next two years, leaving in place most of Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to trim aid for education and tighten caps on school property taxes.

The provisions approved 12-4 by the Joint Finance Committee on a party-line vote would still cut school aid by nearly $800 million over two years – a decrease that Democrats said would be devastating for students. But Republican lawmakers said the cuts would help balance a $3 billion budget deficit without raising taxes and had Walker’s support.

“Is it all that everyone wants? Of course not,” Sen. Alberta Darling, co-chairwoman of the committee, said. But “we felt this was a win-win.”

Republicans on the committee also approved Walker’s proposal to cut state aid to technical colleges by nearly one-third. The changes in the 2011-’13 budget bill must still pass the Assembly and Senate and be signed by the Republican governor.

The cut to schools came just hours after the committee voted on party lines to funnel $160 million from the state’s main account into roads and bridges – money that otherwise could have gone toward schools or other priorities. Democrats tried unsuccessfully to restore more of the proposed cuts to education, both to general school aids and in funds for high-poverty districts such as Milwaukee.

Then this:

Walker had wanted to pay for buses and other forms of transit using the state’s main account, rather than the transportation fund. The state’s general fund consists of sales and income tax collections, while the transportation fund is made up of money from the gas tax and vehicle fees.

Transit advocates railed against Walker’s idea because they said it would pit transit against schools and other important programs, which would likely necessitate later cuts in transit.

The committee went against Walker and kept the funding within the transportation account. The panel put $106.5 million toward transit, resulting in a cut of $9.6 million.

Separately, the committee’s plan would transfer $125 million in income and sales tax revenue to the transportation fund. That is a one-time transfer, but the committee also signed off on making additional annual transfers starting in 2013 of 0.25% of all income and sales tax revenue. That would amount to another $35 million for transportation that year.

And the question:

What the $^%$^%$#@$#^&*$#%#% happened to this state?

Walker: heading into the transportation funding abyss?

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Is Gov. Walker’s road-building binge going to keep Wisconsin mired in the budgetary blues?

His proposals to charge ahead with freeway creation and expansion all over the state never did make much economic sense — hey, gov, the economy will not be helped if trucks can get between cities on new freeways, but break their axles on ruined local roads — but they seem less and less reasonable when the federal highway trust fund is considered. Congress just can’t get a deal done on funding, which means that state taxpayers may end up funding more of the road binge than Walker and his gang are letting on.

From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON—A six-year $556 billion highway and transit construction program proposed by President Barack Obama is the latest casualty of Washington’s spending stalemate.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), who is leading talks on the issue, said Wednesday she is now considering a two-year measure that would freeze federal spending on road, bridge and transit projects at existing levels.

The White House had called for a six-year infrastructure bill in his fiscal 2012 budget in part as a measure to create jobs and boost the economy. But lawmakers haven’t agreed on how to pay for the bill, amid a broader debate over how to slash federal spending.

Ms. Boxer, the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said “funding challenges” could require a two-year, $109 billion bill setting funding at existing levels plus inflation. The bulk, if not all, of the funding for such a bill would come from the federal gasoline tax. Lawmakers would still need to plug a $12 billion shortfall under that bill, because gas-tax revenue is falling.

Kudos to the JS

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Kathleen Gallagher’s outstanding story yesterday on the state’s pending $250 million corporate giveaway really brought home the almost unbelievable disregard for taxpayers, common sense and good government with which this political payback is being pursued. Gov. Scott Walker and legislators are proposing to Hand a “$250 million fund to out-of-state financial management companies that would not have to pay back the fund’s principal and would keep up to 80% of its profits.” Wow. What a great deal. For somebody.

The cherry on top of the scoop of outrage was the layout of the story’s jump. It was next to a jump of a story about 21 Milwaukee Public Schools nurses losing their jobs because Walker is proposing to cut a $1.5 million grant that helps pay for them.

A $250 million giveaway for big business vs. $1.5 million for nursing services for mostly impoverished children. Not a tough choice for the gov, apparently.

Nice package, JS.

This just won’t solve it

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As Gov. Walker pushes the state and country toward further dependency on oil and the despotic, murderous regimes it supports, new figures from the Energy Information Administration show a tiny, tiny increase in domestic oil production. The increase is not enough to even hint that Walker’s road-only policies are good ones, and the increase comes mostly from a jump in environmentally damaging shale production. Nothing to feel much good about here.Domestic oil production

More reasons to oppose the Zoo Interchange plan

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From comments filed with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation by the ACLU, Black Health Coalition and Midwest Environmental Advocates:

Federal law states that federal funding recipients may not, “directly or through contractual or other arrangements, utilizecriteria or methods of administration which have the effect of subjecting persons to discriminationbecause of their race, color, or national origin, or have the effect of defeating or substantially impairing accomplishment of the objectives of the program with respect to individuals of a particular race, color, or national origin.
That the state is planning to increase highway spending while cutting transit in the Milwaukee-Waukesha region is unquestionably a method of administering its transportation programs that has a significant racially discriminatory effect.
Build bigger freeways in a time of increasingly scarce oil while simultaneously decreasing funding for local roads and transit. It’s Scott Walker’s Wisconsin!