The Badger Herald

NEWS

Democrats assail ‘fiscally irresponsible’ plan

Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.

Also by Beth Mueller:

Assembly passes its version of budget repair bill (March 13, 2008)
Stem cell forum hitting Madison (March 13, 2008)
College ad censorship draws anti-abortion ire (March 12, 2008)
Legislators push sick leave drafts (March 11, 2008)
Abortion rights advertising targets 'extreme' legislators (March 10, 2008)

by Beth Mueller

Friday, March 14, 2008

State lawmakers are gearing up for another budget battle, as Senate Democrats and the governor attacked the Republican Assembly’s plan Thursday.

The Legislature is currently working in a special session to repair a $425 million shortfall in the budget — caused by economic slowdown statewide that put tax collections lower than expected — for the next two fiscal years.

After the governor introduced his budget repair proposal earlier this week, the Assembly leadership introduced and passed a plan of its own within a few hours late Wednesday night. Senate leaders will send the plan to the Joint Finance Committee for consideration soon.

“They just cobbled together a bunch of stuff in the middle of the night and passed it,” Carrie Lynch, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, said of the Republican plan. “All they did to manage it was use budget accounting tricks and hide behind broad general cuts that they won’t specify.”

The Republican plan would make $200 million in cuts yet to be specified, for the sake of the flexibility with the governor, according to Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem.

“We’re always willing to work with the governor on finding cuts in state government,” said John Murray, spokesperson for Huebsch. “We thought it was important to empower him as chief executive to determine where those cuts could be made.”

It would also use most of the current “rainy day” fund and push back a payment to school aid by about a week to fill the hole.

Lynch criticized the plan for “drawing down state reserve funds to a dangerously low level.”

The final plan will likely be worked out by a conference committee in a process similar to when the budget was first made. Whether the deliberations will be similarly drawn out, however, has yet to be seen.

“The fact that we came in literally the first day the governor called a special session, put it on the table and moved it forward shows the speaker is committed to getting this done in a timely manner,” Murray said.

Lynch said Senate Democrats hoped to reach out to the Assembly to come to an agreement in a timely manner.

“It won’t get any easier as time drags on, so we’re hoping to have it done within a couple of weeks,” Lynch said.

Gov. Jim Doyle this week introduced his own plan, which is quite different from the Assembly’s and implemented a hospital tax and dipped into the state’s transportation fund to repair the budget. In a statement Thursday, Doyle called the Assembly plan “fiscally irresponsible.”

“Obviously the governor’s goal is to try and get a budget repair done as quickly as possible,” said Doyle spokesperson Carla Vigue. “His proposal was an attempt to spread some of the cuts that need to be made and preserve the state’s priorities … without one person or entity having to take the brunt of the cuts.”

Feedback

Show all comments

Hide anonymous comments

Anonymous (March 14, 2008 @ 5:51am):

Pushing school funding back a week (creating a $125 million hole in the next budget) is bad fiscal policy. As a fiscal conservative, I expect better than that from the GOP.

Add a comment

We welcome your thoughts, but please keep your feedback thoughtful, on-topic and respectful. Offensive language, personal attacks, or irrelevant comments may be deleted.