News

Committee plans to alter QEO provision

The Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee announced its intention to remove 21 items from Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal Tuesday.

The most notable change is in the Qualified Economic Offer provision, which Doyle had removed in his proposal. The QEO permits schools to avoid arbitration if teacher salaries and benefits increase 3.8 percent each year.

Opponents of Doyle’s proposal claim the measure does not contain fiscal policy and thus should not have been included in the state budget.

Mike Prentiss, a spokesperson for Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said the elimination of the QEO was slipped into the budget by Doyle to appease the Wisconsin Education Association Council, which believes the QEO unfairly limits teacher salaries.

“The governor is trying to use the state budget to hand out policy-based favors to interest groups who support his re-election,” Prentiss said.

Doyle suggested the Republican legislature is using procedural maneuvers to avoid taking a clear stance on this controversial issue, pointing out that Wisconsin teacher salaries are well below the national average.

“We are losing excellent teachers, educated here in Wisconsin to higher salaries offered by other states,” Doyle said in a release.

Any attempt to repeal the QEO, such as Doyle’s, is likely to be met with fierce resistance by the Republican dominated legislature. Many state Republicans have made the reduction of property taxes a central theme in their political agenda, and suggest the QEO has helped communities maintain low tax rates.

“It is safe to say there is no great will among the Republican Legislature to abolish the QEO — something that was implemented to try and hold property taxes down. … It has largely been successful,” Prentiss said.

Nonetheless, Prentiss praised Doyle for reducing the amount of policy-based measures within the budget, noting that in past years under Republican and Democratic governors, policy-based proposals numbered in the hundreds. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau identified 21 such provisions in Doyle’s current budget.

“I think the governor should be credited for not putting more policy into the budget.” Prentiss said.