Archive for July, 2009

As reported on the video link to the right, and in this article, a secret deal in the State Budget allows the Oneida Tribe to bypass local liquor licensing processes and negotiate directly with the State.

How did that provision get in the Budget?

Which legislators were lobbied?

Who wrote the language?

When did the Green Bay area Democrats know this provision was in the secret deal?

Nobody’s talking.

Carrie Lynch, a spokesman for state Sen. Russ Decker, D-Weston, said the language was part of a Senate Democratic caucus budget that was completed behind closed doors. She said she did not know if Decker was responsible for the language.

Pathetically, State Majority “Leader” Thomas Nelson refuses to offer any explanation.

Rather than be honest and upfront with the media and his constituents, he simply restates the one talking point on which Legislative Democrats are hanging their hat:

“For the first time in 32 years, Wisconsin passed a budget on time,” he said.

Weak.

As MacIver Institute President Brett Healy noted, taxpayers across Wisconsin should brace themselves for massive property tax hikes over the next two years.

The recently-concluded State Budget process was a secretive, trust-eroding endeavor.  The end result of the backroom dealing was a document that jacks up state spending, raises taxes by more than two billion dollars, borrows billions more, leaves us in a two billion dollar hole and sets the stage for the return of massive property tax hikes.

The Legislature also passed the buck onto local government, including school districts. As those units of government adjust their budgets, look out!

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports this morning:

Nearly two dozen school districts in the Milwaukee area expect to see their general state aid drop by more than 10% next school year, setting the stage for potential large property tax increases later this year.

The fallout of the Budget is still being analyzed and we’ll be finding out more and more about how bad things are for months to come. Sure, the Legislature “got the budget done on time” but in their rush to cram this document down the throats of Wisconsin taxpayers, a full analysis of plan was not available to lawmakers before they cast their votes. In fact, we at the MacIver Institute are confident in predicting none of the lawmakers who voted for the final Conference Committee Report last week read the entire Budget.

The Budget was done on time.

But, at what cost?

The legislature violated the public trust. The Governor violated the Constitution. Spending, taxes and borrowing spiked. We’re still operating under a structural deficit and now property taxes are set to skyrocket.

We’d have preferred, and Wisconsin would have been better served by, a more deliberative, open and frugal process.

Even if it meant a missed deadline or two.

Democrats in Madison were in such a rush to pass one secret deal after another during the budget deliberations that they often voted on packages they had not read.

We’ve worked hard to keep you up to speed with what was happening, mostly behind closed doors, in Madison.

The Conference Committee secret deal didn’t even have the benefit of full vetting by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau before members were forced to vote on it. Fiscal Bureau Director Bob Lang had to resort to augmenting his quick write up with a verbal briefing and best-guess snapshot of the fiscal bottom line.

Now that the awful Budget has passed and has been signed into law by Governor Doyle, the LFB has completed its analysis and we can see the full picture.

It isn’t pretty folks.

So, let’s do the math…

$3.63b increased spending
$2.05b increased taxes, fees, enhanced collections
$3.58b of borrowing
$1.50b allowable local property tax hike
+ $2.05b of a structural deficit
$12.81 billion worth of bad

Moreover, legislative leaders traded in their green eye shades for rose-colored glasses.

This budget is built on overly-optimistic predictions of economic growth in Wisconsin over the next two years.

Given that their economic forecasting has been as poor as their fiscal discipline, The MacIver Institute asks: