Archive for June, 2009

Behold What Madison Hath Wrought A Budget Driven by Politics and Devoid of Principle

Later this morning, Governor Jim Doyle will sign the 2009-2011 State Budget. While he is sure to issue a few vetoes, the bulk of this secretly-crafted, ill-conceived document will become law. We do not expect the Governor will dramatically reduce the spending (a $4 billion increase), the borrowing (a $2.9 billion increase), the taxing ($2.1 billion in this document, with room for property taxes to increase an additional $1.5 billion) or the structural deficit ($2.3 billion).

For months, your team at the MacIver Institute has kept you informed of the development of this Budget(Taxpayers Suffer Memorable Memorial Day). As secret deals were negotiated, we commented on the irregularity and impropriety of the process. When we obtained a draft of one of the versions of the deal, we blew the whistle(Secret Budget Deal Revealed). When we obtained the talking points used by those who concocted this scheme, we published them(Talking Points).

Each step of the way, on this site and at out Twitter Feed, we kept you abreast of the latest twist and turns in Madison.

The process was government at its worst. Secretive. Punitive. Arrogant. We spent a lot of our efforts exposing the bad faith dealings and back room scheming. However, it would be a great disservice to merely focus on the process. So much (bad) has happened these past several weeks that it is easy to forget just how awful and misguided the final document is. With the caveat that a few of the items below may be trimmed or eliminated by veto, we present to you, in all its gory, the lowlights of what the Governor and your legislative ‘leaders’ have wrought.

In no particular order, they are:

  • The New Income Tax Bracket – This income tax increase will raise an additional $287 million over the next two years. Raising taxes during tough economic times is always a bad idea.
  • Capital Gains Tax Increase – The Conference Committee modified earlier recommendations by decreasing the capital gains exclusion to 30%. Relative to current law, individual income tax collections would increase by $115,100,000 in 2009-10 and $127,400,000 in 2010-11. Partial victory here. The Senate wanted to tax 100% of capital gains but “settled” for a 30% exclusion. Don’t you feel better now that it is only a $242 million dollar tax increase? Wait a second. Our taxes are still going up.
  • Rising Debt Levels – The State of Wisconsin will increase general obligation bonding by $3.3 billion and face a structural deficit of $2.3 billion heading into the next budget. Doesn’t the State of Wisconsin have a balanced budget requirement?
  • Specify that the current law requirement that revenues exceed expenditures in each fiscal year would not apply in 2010-11. There’s your answer. Even though state law requires the Legislature to pass a balanced budget, this provision conveniently allows them to ignore that requirement. Further proof that despite the spin and talking points, this budget is no where close to being fiscally balanced.
  • Local Property Tax Increase of $1.5 billion – State Government graciously agreed to increase the ceiling on your local governments’ ability to raise your property tax bill from 2% to 3%. On a median value home, it will result in a $90 increase in the first year and a $130 increase in the second year. How very considerate of them. Have you ever noticed that all levels of governments seem to work well together when they are trying to screw you, the taxpayer?
  • The Elimination Of The QEO – Restore the Governor’s language to repeal the qualified economic offer, under which a school district could avoid arbitration by offering an annual 3.8% compensation increase. Despite widespread editorial support to keep the property tax protections of the QEO, the Legislature decides to do away with it and stick it to you. If you believe this is no big deal, consider this. In 2008-2009, only 18 school districts out of 291 reported they negotiated annual compensation increases under the QEO imposed 3.8%. Just 18. Now that the state-imposed 3.8% ceiling is gone, how high do you think teacher’s yearly raises will go? How high do you think your property taxes will go?
  • Double The Garbage Tax – This will raise Wisconsin’s garbage tax to the highest in the nation. Don’t worry, I’m sure your local government will just absorb the increase in their budget. They would never pass that along to property taxpayers.
  • Sick Tax + The New Sick Tax – The ‘original’ sick tax started back in February (Act 2), raising $275 million. Not happy with the size of their cut, Governor Doyle and Legislators imposed a ‘new’ hospital tax, raising $854 million more in 2009-2011. The Finance Committee then made sure this new tax applied to ambulatory surgical centers, raising $44 million more. I sure hope no one in the state gets sick anytime soon, the bill for their care might just send them into cardiac arrest.
  • Auto Insurance Changes – The Conference Committee included the highest mandatory minimums in the nation, a mandate that drivers have to pay higher premiums and a completely new provision that will force good drivers to subsidize higher risk drivers. If these mandates pass, experts predict rates could skyrocket by 30 to 45 percent for drivers in Wisconsin. Don’t worry, when it becomes too expensive to drive, moderate speed rail will take you to where you need to go. Well, as long as you bike to one of the 3 stations in the greater Milwaukee area.
  • Extends the State’s platinum health and retirement benefits to the boyfriends and the girlfriends of state employees.
  • New Phone Tax – Impose a 75 cents/month phone tax but give it a sympathetic name “Police and Fire Protection Fee”. LFB estimates this new fee will bring in over $100 million dollars over the next two years. Not satisfied with their take, Lawmakers moved up the starting date of this tax to September 1, which will bring in $5 million dollars more.
  • Education Cuts – $295 million less for our schools over two years while blowing holes in the revenue limits (friend of the property taxpayer) for nurses, school safety, above-average transportation costs (whatever that means) and energy efficiency. Throw in the repeal of the QEO and you have the makings of a property tax increase perfect storm.
  • Double The Nursing Home Bed Tax – The Governor and the Legislature jack up the assessment from $75 per licensed bed to $150 per licensed bed in 2009-10 and to $170 per licensed bed in 2010-11. Well, everyone knows that caring for your elderly Mom and Dad costs practically nothing. It’s about time the infirm start paying their fair share.
  • Prevent the Use Of Private Contractors During Hiring Freeze – With all the so-called ‘cuts’ to state government and laying off of state employees, this is the “don’t you dare think about using less expensive and more efficient private companies to do the work” provision. Wisconsin is facing the worst fiscal crisis in our history but rather than do a top to bottom review of what essential services we need to provide, the Legislature decides it is more important to protect the jobs of their union buddies.
  • Provide University of Wisconsin System (UW System) Staff With The Right To Collectively Bargain - At a time when the State needs to look for efficiencies and savings everywhere possible, the Legislature increased our labor costs at the UW. How long before we see a strike during Homecoming week?
  • It gets better. As FoxPolitics discovered, the Conference Committee included new language “whereby research assistants may determine whether to form themselves into collective bargaining units by authorization cards in lieu of secret ballot.” The unions cannot get card check passed at the national level so they go to their buddies in Wisconsin to quietly slip it into the budget at the last possible second. No hearing, no media scrutiny, no chance for the public to voice their opinion.
  • Allow Independent Home Care Providers To Unionize – The proposal is “based on a statewide model developed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).” Gee, do you think this model developed by the union focuses on the patient or the worker?
  • Various Items And Funding Schemes For Regional Transit Authorities – Non-elected bodies with taxing authority always make us nervous. A Milwaukee Transit Authority has been created that will let Milwaukee County supervisors levy a 0.5% sales tax to raise $60 million. It would also authorize creation of a regional transit authority for a commuter rail line linking Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha that would be paid for by raising the $2 car-rental fee to $18. Also created is the Chippewa Valley Regional Transit Authority in Eau Claire County, the Chequamegon Bay Regional Transit Authority in Ashland County and Bayfield County and the Dane County Regional Transit Authority in Dane County. Do you think the Chequamegon Bay Authority will pool local resources to buy a fleet of canoes to go from lake to lake?
  • School Aid “Adjustments” – The title of this one sounds good. The Legislative Leadership must be rethinking their decision to cut school aids by $295 million dollars. Wait, under their idea of an adjustment, state aid to “wealthy districts” will be cut even further. According to Steve Walters of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, this provision is targeted at the “Elmbrook, Oconomowoc, Mequon-Thiensville, Fox Point-Bayside and Nicolet” districts. I wonder if these Wisconsinites will feel rich this fall when they dig a little deeper to pay their local property taxes.
  • Cigarette Tax Increase – Cigarette smokers will pay a $2.52-per-pack tax, or 75 cents more than they do now. Why don’t we just outlaw tobacco and be done with it? State government needs the $310 million in tax revenue.
  • Treatment Of Police Officers – Criminals in Milwaukee are innocent until proven guilty but that same right won’t apply to Milwaukee Police Officers. The City of Milwaukee will be able to withhold pay and benefits from any fired officer during the appeals process, even if the officer was fired for a rule violation. Our men and women in blue deserve better.

Budget Pork – At a time when the state faced a $6.6 billion dollar deficit, Lawmakers miraculously find enough spare change to fund over 100 individual pork items. Some of the most blatant:

  • $50,000.00 for a children’s playground in Beloit.
  • Earmarks to food pantries in Burlington, Union Grove, Rio, South Milwaukee and Lodi. We know times are tough for all non-profits, but why does this select group get direct aid from the state?
  • State funds earmarked to pay for recycling bins in the Town of Wrightstown. We kid you not. Recycling bins.
  • $500,000.00 for the Opera House in Oshkosh. We might suggest they give Oshkosh $500,000.00 NOT to refurnish the Opera House. Just kidding. It’s a joke.
  • Prohibit the swim police from requiring a lifeguard be on duty at the Milwaukee Athletic Club’s swimming pool.
  • Make the Shepard Express the paper of record in the Milwaukee area. This is another new item slipped in at the very last possible second. The Conference Committee eases circulation and geographical requirements so legal notices can be printed in the Shepard Express. Does their former colleague Lou Fortis still own that paper? Would this be retaliation for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s criticism of the budget process?
  • Municipal Liquor Licenses in Capital Improvement Areas – 8 new liquor licenses for the Pabst Farms development in Oconomowoc. Let’s get our drink on.
  • And if they run out of beer at Pabst Farms, the Legislature gave a liquor license to Monona and 3 more to St. Francis.
  • $500,000.00 earmark for a new environmental center in Madison. Don’t they have like 17 of them already? It’s Madison.
  • Require the Department of Commerce to fill a job vacancy by October of this year. Why would the Legislature care about the area development manager position in Western Wisconsin? Would they have someone specific in mind?
  • $100,000 for HIV/AIDS programs of Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin Inc.
  • UW Madison School of Nursing building project – require the Building Commission to allocate $3,006,000.00 ($2,004,000 in building trust funds and $1,002,000 in gifts) for advance planning of the project for potential enumeration in the 2011-13 building program. The UW did not asked for this project to be built but the Senate slipped it in. After statewide criticism of the unnecessary project, rather than delete the whole thing, Leadership decides to spend the money on planning just to secure some votes.
  • Provide $3.2 million for grants to the City of Milwaukee for “the purposes of furthering engineering to meet the needs of businesses and the state.” Sunset the appropriation on June 30, 2012. This provision is not a “difference” between the two houses. This is new pork stuck in the budget with no one’s name on it, no hearing to discuss the merits and no idea what it does. Engineering services in Milwaukee are so scarce it is now the responsibility of the State of Wisconsin to help provide for them with general tax revenues? Is
  • Let 400 retirees of now-closed Tower Automotive in Milwaukee pay premiums to enroll in state health-care programs. Pretty sweet deal if you can get it.
  • Provide the Madison School District $1.5 million of general tax revenue for Four-Year Old Kindergarten grants.
  • Study a high speed rail stop in Waterloo. Raise your hand if you want the train to stop in Waterloo? We thought so.
  • Earmark $55,000 annually to Diverse & Resilient, Inc. (rather than to the Gay Straight Alliance for Safe Schools, Inc.) from the amounts appropriated for the Brighter Futures program.
  • $50,000 for Barron County Restorative Justice Programs.
  • $50,000 for Merrill center for abuse victims.
  • $10,000 for Oneida County trail crossing.
  • $100,000 for Lake Koshkonong management study.
  • $108,000 for Plum City/Union Fire Department equipment. State law currently requires municipalities who receive these grants to help the state fight forest fires on state land. Seems reasonable, right? Not here. Plum City gets a waiver so it doesn’t have to help the rest of us out.
  • Apparently Plum City wasn’t through. How about $60,000 for the Plum City School District. Do the legislators even know where Plum City is?
  • $521,800 to expand Langlade County Family Care program.
  • $500,000 for Eisner Ave. project in Sheboygan County.
  • $400,000 for bicycle lanes on County Highway B in Douglas County.
  • $300,000 to monitor Petenwell and Castle Rock flowages.
  • Require the Public Service Commission to provide $300,000 annually to a nonstock, nonprofit corporation that is exempt from federal income taxation under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and that has a history of advocating on behalf of residential ratepayers for affordable rates to be used to offset the corporation’s general expenses. Oh joy. Let’s give a group state taxpayer dollars so they can turnaround and sue state government. That makes a whole lot of sense.

To be sure, there is more, but at present, this is all we could stomach to point out.

Some have called this budget the worst public policy document in the history of the State of Wisconsin. While others may view this as hyperbole, we challenge them to find a budget that was less prudent or more irrational.

This is what happens when priorities are sacrificed on the alter of politics. Moreover, when the press and the public are shut out of the process, those with power are emboldened to follow their most base instincts. The process and the product are, therefore, equally grotesque.

Sadly, Wisconsin’s economy, and the families of this great State, will bear the scars of this folly for decades to come.

By Brett Healy
A MacIver Perspective

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Posted in mi perspectives | June 29, 2009 | | No Comments

It’s No Secret:
Both the Process and the Product Just Plain Awful

Wow.

In a budget process that has seen it’s share of shocking developments and outrageous statements, perhaps nothing stands out more than this recent pronouncement from Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle. From WisPolitics’ Monday PM Subscriber Update:

Doyle also shrugged off criticisms that the budget process was not open.

“Everything is totally transparent. Everybody knows what the bills were that were passed by the two houses and they know what the issues of debate are, the differences between the two houses. So there aren’t any secrets here,” Doyle said.

No secrets? Really?

Well, there certainly are a lot fewer secrets in the various versions of the budget, thanks in part to the reporters in the Capitol, including those who write at WisPoltics’ Budget Blog. Your team at the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy has also spent hundreds of hours scouring documents, following leads and obtaining and posting secret deals in order to reveal some of the more sneaky items inserted throughout the process.

There are so many items stuck into the various secret deals behind closed doors it is hard to keep up.

In the last few days alone, the following sneaky provisions have been revealed.

A radical change in the way some farm land is taxed.

A sweeping change in the way projects must be bid that would cause County costs to soar.

We are sure there will be more, IF the public and the press are allowed the time and opportunity to review the ever-evolving process.

Perhaps that’s the motivation behind pushing for a quick, secret settlement of differences between the ill-crafted Assembly plan and the ill-crafted Senate plan.

Can it be that our Governor is blind to the mess happening in the building in which he works and deaf to the the concerns of folks throughout Wisconsin?

After all, it’s not just free market think tanks that are raising a stink about the secrecy that plagues this awful Budget.

Wausau Daily Herald
And while no one wants a debate that extends into October, lawmakers should give the bill time to be seen in the light of day. And they will have to be open to smart revisions and political compromises.

Green Bay Press Gazette
Finally, most of the heavy lifting of the budget was done in secret. Again this week, Assembly Democrats debated and hammered out changes behind closed doors, where voters and taxpayers could not monitor their representatives’ behavior.

Sheboygan Press
Democrats, who control the Assembly as well as the Senate, went behind closed doors in party caucus to come up with their version of the budget — and then debated the bill on the Assembly floor late into the night and voted on it early in the morning last Saturday.

This was after the Democrat-controlled Joint Finance Committee held late-night and weekend sessions as it modified the proposal Gov. Jim Doyle made in February.

And, it appears this is the way the Senate will be operating, too.

Secret planning sessions and holding late-night and early-morning legislative sessions are shameful tactics.

Is it any wonder why taxpayers have little confidence in their elected leaders?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
In the state budget bills currently before the Assembly and Senate, there are earmarks and other provisions that were inserted without public discussion, whose authors are unknown and whose effects on public policy could be significant. Meetings take place into the dead of night; deals are made and decisions are reached in secret and in the wee hours of the morning when – our guess – legislators often are too fatigued to think straight.

The Janesville Gazette
Every Wisconsinite should be outraged at the secrecy surrounding a budget that will dump billions in new taxes on individuals and businesses.

Appleton Post Crescent
Given the chance to change how the state Legislature operates in devising the state budget, the newly empowered Democrats who hold the majority in the Assembly and Senate, as well as the governor’s seat, chose more of the same.

Given the chance to create more openness with the budget process, they chose closed caucuses, middle-of-the-night meetings and last-minute additions.

Given the chance to confine the budget bill to its true purpose — determining how the state will raise and spend money — they chose to fill it with policy items they apparently couldn’t pass on their own.

Given the chance to end the practice of earmark spending, they chose to spend millions on it while the state is mired in a $3 million deficit in the first year of the two-year budget.

Given the chance to put the state on a more solid financial footing, they chose to make it worse — not just for state government but for the state’s K-12 schools.

But if you only have time to read one editorial today, read this piece from the Eau Claire Leader Telegram. It captures what’s wrong with the process. Some excerpts:

So considering that the contents of the budget will be so distasteful, why does the state Legislature – and its Democratic majority – seem intent on making the process distasteful too? Why are they racing through thousands of pages and hundreds of amendments in just a few hours? Why are they doing so much of their wheeling and dealing out of the public eye? In short, what are they hiding?

First, there are the all-night sessions in the Capitol that would make the hardest partying student on the nearby UW-Madison campus envious: The Joint Finance Committee passed its version of the budget at 5:30 a.m. May 30; the Assembly passed its budget at 5:19 a.m. June 13.

While it’s laudable that lawmakers seem intent on meeting the July 1 budget deadline (they’re often months late), is it really necessary to pull all-nighters to do so?
…
And then there’s the secrecy. It’s bad enough that majority Democrats can close their caucus meetings – where real decisions are made – to the press and public. Now they may make an end-run around the state’s open meetings law. Normally, once the Senate and Assembly pass their versions of the budget, a conference committee – which includes members from both houses – is formed to iron out the differences. However, Democratic leaders now may skip that step and settle those differences in secret instead. As The Associated Press noted last week, “Lawmakers are allowed to do so because without the committee being created, there is no obligation to comply with open meetings law.”

The AP report continued: “Leaders could talk among themselves, and possibly reach a deal, without ever calling a meeting or allowing Republicans, who are in the minority, to participate.”

Wisconsin Democrats may call their politics progressive, but their handling of the budget process has moved the state backward.

Well, those are merely the opinions from across the state.

The Governor either is not aware of those concerns, or does not care. Either scenario is troubling.

“Everything is totally transparent. Everybody knows what the bills were that were passed by the two houses and they know what the issues of debate are, the differences between the two houses. So there aren’t any secrets here.”

It’s a secret to only Governor Doyle: This budget process has been outrageously sneaky, shady, shameful and secretive. And the products that is resulting from that process is equally awful and will forever be tainted by the way in which it was crafted. That is, unless lawmakers reverse course, start over and craft and debate a plan in plain sight.

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Posted in mi perspectives | June 23, 2009 | | No Comments

Oh, What A Night!
Our Summary And Analysis Of The Late Night, Closed Door Budget Votes By Assembly Democrats

Before we begin our analysis of last night’s closed-door activity of the Assembly Democrats (their secret changes to the secret budget deal), let’s remind readers what some of their members have said about transparency in public policy making.

“Now that Democrats are in the majority we have the opportunity to lead in a different and better way–I hope we rise to the challenge. We face the toughest economic climate since the Great Depression, the largest deficit in state history, and the task of sorting out billions of dollars in federal stimulus support. The very least we can do is open all of our debate to public view.” -State Representative Cory Mason

[Rep. Louis] Molepske explained that granting selective access to bill drafts not only denies the public its right to open government, but gives special interests a distinct advantage in passing their legislative proposals, as committee hearings can be held within 24 hours of a bill’s introduction, well before the public even has the opportunity to read, understand and submit testimony on the effects of a bill.

“We should not legislate in the middle of the night under the cover of darkness. To pull a major piece of legislation … in the middle of the night and vote on it without proper debate and public scrutiny reduces public faith in government and makes people question who we are there to represent – the public or the special interests. I will continue to advocate for my bill which would ban these midnight voting practices. I sincerely hope my Republican colleagues, who supported a legislative curfew more than a decade ago, will have the courage to cross party lines and join me in this effort to move Wisconsin’s legislative agenda forward in the light of day.” -State Representative Mark Pocan

Ok, now that we’ve set the stage, let’s look at what happened late last night in closed caucus, behind closed doors, outside of the scrutiny of the press and the public.

We should acknowledge that in some respect, Assembly Democrats did pass some changes that make their version of the secret deal better than the Joint Finance Committee’s version. Notably, they:

  • Deleted changes to Joint and Several liability
  • Made changes to the Autism mandate to make it better, still a new mandate
  • Restored $5.4 million to Department of Justice budget after the JFC went after the Attorney General for partisan reasons
  • Deleted driver licenses changes that would have prevented Judges from suspending an individual’s license
  • Deleted the UW Nursing School enumeration that the UW did not request

There are also areas where their version of the Secret Deal is as bad as or even worse than the Joint Finance’s Committee’s version. The Assembly Democrats:

  • Kept $2.25 billion in increased taxes and fees
  • Retained $1.48 billion in allowable local property tax increases
  • Didn’t nick the $3.31 billion in increased borrowing
  • Left unchanged the JFC’s $2.26 billion structural deficit so the next budget will start even further in the hole
  • Raided $337,800,000 dollars of segregated fees to pay for general programs.
  • Kept JFC’s changes to the prevailing wage law
  • Advocated for the early release of violent felons by gutting Wisconsin’s truth-in-sentence law
  • Gut active GPS monitoring of the worst child sex offenders and replacing it with less effective passive monitoring
  • Mandated state health insurance coverage of boyfriends and girlfriends of state employees.  This mandate could be expanded to local governments, and could initially cost state government $15 million a year
  • Granted collective bargaining rights for UW faculty, academic staff, and research assistants
  • Did not act to restore the QEO leaving local property taxpayers vulnerable
  • Created more RTAs – the Assembly Dems added RTAs for the Fox Valley and the Chippewa Valley.  The Fox Valley Regional Transit Authority was created without having any public or locally-elected body vote on its creation
  • Made no changes to the onerous School Choice provisions that severely harm that program
  • Added several earmarks/pork items to attract enough votes to pass the bill

They use the euphemism “targeted investments” instead of pork.  Someone at the Government Accountability Board may prefer to use the term ‘logrolling,’ but we digress. Here’s the new pork, and who was targeted:

  • $108,000 for Plum Creek Fire Department. Rep. Danou
  • $60,000 GPR each for school districts in Pepin, Plum City and Cochran/Fountain City. Rep. Danou
  • $50,000 for Barron County Restorative Justice. Rep. Hubler
  • Keep state patrol HQ in Spooner open. Rep. Hubler
  • Study a Waterloo stop in the DOT high speed rail plan. Rep. Jorgensen
  • Lake improvement study for Lake Koshkonong. Rep. Jorgensen
  • $400,000 for 80% of project costs for transit infrastructure improvements on County Highway B. Rep. Milroy
  • Authorize UW-Stevens Point to plan a BS degree in nursing. Rep Molepske
  • Provide $175,000 to Town of Stockton for transit infrastructure improvements on Old Highway 18. Rep. Molepske
  • Remove Tomah trooper station from closure list and consolidate with the Tomah DNR ranger station. Rep. Radcliffe
  • $300,000 for environmental cleanup efforts in Adams County. Rep. Schneider
  • Incubator project to create jobs and grow bio-tech economy -$750,000 in the next Budget. Rep. Steinbrink
  • Provide $500,000 for transit infrastructure improvements in Sheboygan County. Rep. Van Akkeren

Great. A ‘high speed’ rail train From Milwaukee to Madison will have slow down and stop in Waterloo where no one will disembark and only Rep. Jorgenson will get on a few days a year. Anyway…

At first blush, last night seems to be a stunning rebuke of Representative Pocan, the liberal Madison legislator who, as Joint Finance co-Chair, was the Assembly Democrat’s chief negotiator on the budget. A lot of secret side deals he cut behind closed doors were rejected when his full caucus had a chance to also vote in secret. It would also appear that the “winners” from last night’s late-night closed door activities would include those who have publicly lobbied hard against:

  • The liability law changes
  • The legally-dubious Oil Franchise Fee’s no-pass through provision
  • The devastating and capricious cuts to the Department of Justice budget

But, and this is a huge but here folks, don’t count the Assembly’s secret deals as victories yet.

The Assembly leaders are NOT working on a final Budget deal. They are merely working to obtain 50 votes to advance a version of the current deal out of their house and onto the Senate.  Any disagreements between the Assembly’s behind closed doors, secret deal and the Senate’s will be hashed out through a Conference Committee, the results of which cannot be amended, merely approved or voted down as a package.

Most or all of the “victories” from last night could easily be set aside by a new secret deal negotiated by Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker and Finance co-Chair Pocan.

But, we’ll acknowledge progress when we see it. Well, when the Assembly leaders allow us to see it after they finally get around to briefing the public and the press about their dark of night, bar-time, behind closed doors activities, at least.

The Assembly is scheduled to vote on the Budget today. (In daylight even!) They will go to the floor and begin debates on amendments when they have the 50 votes needed to pass this onto the Senate.

Stay tuned.

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Posted in mi perspectives | June 11, 2009 | | No Comments

BUDGET FASTFACT
Eleven Point Six Billion Bucks of Bad
Is Vinehout Voting No?

Compared to the last budget, to solve the $6.6 billion dollar deficit, the Governor and the Joint Finance Committee have:

Offered a spending Increase of $3.685 billion.  Documented yesterday.
Tax and Fee Increases of $2.113 billion. If we throw in the money from “enhanced collections”, we get to $2.245 billion.

Documentation: In summary, the changes included in the Committee’s budget would increase net taxes by $1,872,235,200 ($60,500,000 in 2008-09, $840,898,900 in 2009-10, and $970,836,300 in 2010-11) and would increase net fees by $241,335,800 ($95,118,000 in 2009-10 and $146,217,800 in 2010-11).  In addition, measures included in the bill to enhance the collection of current taxes/fees would generate an additional $132,102,000 ($71,459,000 in 2009-10 and $60,643,000 in 2010-11).

Increased Borrowing of $3.31 billion all funds.  Documented yesterday.
A Structural Deficit of $2.258 billion.

Documentation:  Table 5 shows that, for 2011-12, the general fund would need to generate $1,107 million in order to meet current commitments and those of ASA 1 to AB 75, maintain the required statutory balance, and balance the budget for that year.  In 2012-13, $1,151 million ($44 million over the $1,107 million in 2011-12) would need to be realized.  These amounts could be generated by revenue increases (growth or tax increases), appropriation reductions, or some combination of the two.

So, let’s do the math…
calculator.jpg

$3.685b increased spending

$2.245b increased taxes, fees, enhanced collections
$3.31b in increased borrowing
+ $2.258b of a structural deficit

= $11.598 billion worth of bad.

Eleven point six billion dollars worth of bad in this secret deal. Now we know why the leaders of the Joint Finance Committee wanted to keep this secret for as long as possible.

As you read this, Democratic leaders in the Assembly are scrambling to get the 50 votes necessary to pass this secret budget deal. The Assembly has put off a vote on the Budget until at least Thursday afternoon/evening.

After Assembly action, the plan will go to the Senate for consideration there.

The current plan is certainly no slam dunk in that house, either.

Exhibit One: Does this blog post mean that Senator Vinehout won’t be voting yes on this version of the Budget?

I was told last week, I could ask for only one change to the budget deal. But people in Western Wisconsin need more than one thing. We need good roads, safe neighborhoods, thriving schools, a local pharmacy, local government services and lower property taxes.

One particularly interesting item:

The culture in Madison has to change and the only way this will happen is when individual senators and representatives insist they must be included; the voices of the people in their district must be heard. We must refuse to have our arms twisted by those who make the deals behind closed doors.

After finding the state $6.6 billion dollars in the hole, the first thing the Governor and the Democrats on Joint Finance did was not to cut spending but rather to dig the hole deeper by spending an additional $3.685 billion dollars. Once they figured out that this put them more than $10 billion in the hole, they decided to raise taxes and fees…. and to borrow …. and to push off paying the bills until the next budget.  The net result of all this hard work is that the State of Wisconsin will be worse off in the future.

But this devastation will only happen if leaders manage to get a majority in both houses to agree to what they’ve done. A handful of lawmakers cannot pass the budget on their own.

So, the horse trading/arm twisting continues outside of public view.

The longer this goes on, it looks like this current secret deal of a Budget will be replaced by a new secret Conference Committee deal cut by Senator Decker and Representative Pocan and voted on by the entire legislature in two or three weeks.

And at this point, unless there are significant changes which are discussed, debated and voted upon in the open, it is clear Senator Vinehout has to vote no on any and all of these secret deals–either that or face the prospect of being called out as a hypocrite back home.

Stay tuned…

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Posted in mi fast facts | June 9, 2009 | | No Comments

BUDGET FASTFACT: JFC BUDGET
Spending Up Nearly $3.7 Billion

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau is now out with its analysis of the Joint Committee on Finance action on the 2009-11 State Budget

Contrary to the talking points they’ve been peddling, the Democrats’ actions made a bad budget even worse. The JFC proposes to spend nearly $3.7 billion more than the 2007-09 Budget and to do so will borrow even more than the Governor proposed in February.

Borrowing
Doyle’s proposed $2.713 billion in General Obligation and Revenue bonding, JFC upped the ante–their secret late night deal includes $3.31 billion in bonding.

Spending
The budget, as altered by the Joint Finance Committee, increases spending (all funds) by 6.3 percent ($3.685 billion) compared to the last State Budget. Total spending in this proposal now stands at $62.243 billion.

As for the efforts of the Joint Finance Committee:
For all their rhetoric about all the tough cuts they’ve made through their late-night secret deal making, state spending goes up nearly $3.7 billion under their plan.

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Posted in mi fast facts | June 8, 2009 | | No Comments
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