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?

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.

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.

Congressional Republicans looking to hold down federal spending are considering a transportation budget blueprint that would, at a minimum, be less than half the size of the plan advanced by the White House.

In fact, the base-line figure of under $240 billion would fall below what Congress approved in similar legislation five years ago for road, bridge and transit upgrades, according to sources with knowledge of the six-year plan.

The bill for budgeting transportation priorities in the states is just beginning to take shape within the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

And if the feds don’t come through, just how will Gov. Walker get the money for his wildly over-ambitious homage to his road builder masters?

During his campaign for governor, Scott Walker said the state should lift the moratorium on building nuclear plants here.

From the JS:

Scott Walker: With the safety advances made in nuclear energy, I believe it’s critical to lift the moratorium on this clean, viable energy source to diversify our long-term energy portfolio.

Clean? Viable? Tell that that to the Japanese.

The meeting at the Wauwatosa Public Library ended early. This photo is by Steve Brachman.

That’s an amazing increase and is even 21% more than the Wisconsin Department of Transportation asked for!

In FY10 and FY11, WisDOT will pay about $151.3 million in debt service; the agency asked for $287.1 million for 2012 and 2013; and Walker is recommending an astonishing $346 million.

Walker’s proposal is $194.6 million more than the 2010-11 figure and $58.9 million more than WisDOT sought.

Why this big increase? We don’t know. Walker’s proposed budget doesn’t tell us other than to say there is a re-estimate. For what? By whom? Yes, he is up to his old county tricks of withholding important information from the public footing the bill.

And Walker is pumping money into big road and unnecessary freeway expansion projects — the Zoo Interchange and North-South I-94 here in Milwaukee County — while cutting transit, local road aids and the money the state pays counties to take care of state roads. Transit, under Walker’s proposal, will move to the general fund, where it will compete for resources with education and social services, which Walker is also cutting. He also proposes to grab a share of sales tax revenue, which traditionally funded things like education and social services — and use it for transportation instead.

Who needs decent schools at a time of increasing global academic competitiveness when you can have wider roads in a time of declining oil resources instead?

Maybe all this laying of concrete is Walker’s tribute to himself: cement head, cement state.

A cut of a cool $74 million.

Ald. Michael Murphy, meanwhile, said that his very rough, very back-of-the-envelope estimate is that the governor’s budget will be a $30 million hit to the city.