Tag Archives: State Legislature

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?

The absolutely right decision

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Here’s a cheer and a great sigh of relief for the State Supreme Court’s decision rejecting the Doyle state’s efforts to get around the law through labor negotiations.

The court rejected arguments that the Legislature changed the open records law when it  approved labor contracts the prohibited employees’ names from being made public. (Those contracts were negotiated during the short, mostly forgettable McCallum administration.)

A decision the other way would have set the terrible precedent of allowing laws to be changed silently and secretly, without public notice or debate, to satisfy whatever special interest can get their hooks into a willing legislator.

Sounds a bit like the state budget process, doesn’t it?

Is the state deficit real?

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The Journal Sentinel reports today that Republicans in the State Legislature are questioning Gov. Doyle’s projection of a $3 billion budget gap. Partisan arguing can go on all day about whether the state should use budget request as a basis for the projection, but there is no doubt that the state is going to be looking into a deep, deep hole for the 2007-09 budget, just like school districts and municipalities are.

Here’s how Paul Vornholt, the city’s chief lobbyist, put it last week during a city budget hearing.

“The rhetoric behind the scenes from DOA (the State Department of Administration) and the governor’s office is that this will be the worst deficit he’s faced since he’s been in office,”  Vornholt told the Finance and Personnel Committee.

Vornholt said he was hopeful that there would be some improvement in state shared revenue funding for the city. The city’s basic strategy, though, is about preserving what it has: “First you play defense — don’t hurt me, don’t cut me,” he said.