Doyle: No tax increases

by Pedro Oliveira Jr.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008 01:29

Gov. Jim Doyle vowed Tuesday to fix Wisconsin’s budget shortfall and further develop the economy without major cuts in education or health care, all while keeping his promise not to raise taxes.

Doyle told a group of Wisconsin entrepreneurs he has asked state agencies to make budget cuts to balance the books and is convinced the state can recover from the projected $652 million shortfall.

“I feel confident that we can do this in a way that does not raise taxes — in a way that we make cuts, but we make cuts in the areas that do not harm the basic priorities of this state, [which are] assuring that our school system is good, assuring that we continue to expand access to higher education and making sure that the basic health care plans of Wisconsin are available,” Doyle said.

According to the governor, Wisconsin is entitled to $450 million in health care funds from the federal government, and while a major part of the money would go back to support hospitals, the remaining $125 million could be used to help overcome the state’s deficit.

“There’s about $450 million of federal money sitting right there on the corner of the table that we can go and get from the federal government and get it in a way that hospitals get paid more,” he said.

Doyle added he is expecting to protect the budget money allocated to the University of Wisconsin, but all state agencies “may have a little share in this to get it done.”

“I think we can get this done without any significant cuts to the university. I think we can get it done in a way that doesn’t slow the growth agenda of the university and doesn’t cut into the financial aid of the students,” he added.

University of Wisconsin System is already implementing saving strategies by cutting expenses on travel and hiring and leasing locations for meetings and conferences, spokesperson David Giroux said.

While sending faculty and administration to academic conferences is important to furthering the quality of education, the system would rather “cancel a few trips than cancel a few classes,” according to Giroux.

“That is the challenge. We can’t overemphasize this enough,” Giroux said. “This will not be easy, to preserve any of the momentum that we have while also cutting funding.”

Carrie Lynch, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, said she expects the Senate to approve Doyle’s proposal before the Legislature ends session in mid-March.

Lynch said though she is confident the Senate could support and pass legislation by next week, there is no predicting how long the Republican-controlled Assembly would take.

Speaking at the Business Day in Madison Tuesday, Doyle said he would continue to invest in companies that commit to research by lowering state taxes and added he would also promote renewable energy research statewide.

The governor also praised Wisconsin’s 80 percent increase in exports in the last five years and said Wisconsin could double that amount in six or seven years if the state stays in the current economic path.