This summer the state Legislature will be deciding on a budget for the state of Wisconsin – a process that should be full of controversy. Gov. Scott Walker has proposed his biennial budget, which includes tax cuts, increased spending on vouchers and charter schools and cuts to the Government Accountability Board.

One thing his budget does not include is federal money for Medicaid expansion. Because Walker attempted to radically restructure the state budget with his budget repair bill of 2010, which stripped unions of collective bargaining rights and cut public employment, Wisconsin finds itself in need of major budget changes.

The sorry state of Wisconsin’s budget is the result of mixed up priorities that need to be re-evaluated. This state’s social safety net is disturbingly weak, and yet Walker has cut more than $1 billion in tax revenue throughout the course of his term. We spend too much money incarcerating people and not enough educating them.

In order to set these priorities straight, the state should cut spending on corrections, increase spending on education, accept the money for BadgerCare expansion and restructure its broken welfare system. In order to fix many of the flaws in our system, we should focus on increasing tax revenue.

Wisconsin should get serious about reducing its prison population. According to Justice Strategies, in 2011 an average of 23,000 people were incarcerated on any given day – on average, 2,900 of these prisoners were incarcerated for nonviolent drug-related offenses. Wisconsin leads the nation in racial disparity of drug incarceration rates. In Wisconsin, black people are 42 times more likely to be incarcerated for drug offenses than white people, reports Human Rights Watch.

Drug offenses are far less detrimental to society than violent crime, and treating drug addicts like felons is counterproductive – we should stop incarcerating drug offenders. Money spent on correctional facilities could be spent much more efficiently if it were directed at preventing crime rather than dealing with people who commit crimes.

The state should work toward reducing the college tuition by investing in the University of Wisconsin System. In-state tuition has more than doubled over the past decade. Student debt will hurt the economy – this is a problem almost all states face due to cuts to higher education throughout the 2000s. Wisconsin should lead the nation by attempting to cut tuition in half as a percentage of gross state product per capita.

Walker’s decision to not accept the federal money laid out in the Affordable Care Act to strengthen BaderCare is particularly troublesome. Rather than expanding BadgerCare coverage Walker plans on tightening enrollment requirements. This is unacceptable. The state should be focused on expanding coverage to all, not kicking people off Medicaid to advance an ideological message. The state needs the federal money, and Walker’s decision to withhold that money is irresponsible.

Finally, we should focus on improving welfare in the state. Welfare to work is bad policy – it forces people on welfare without jobs to work for the state for 35 hours a week, and for less than minimum wage. While 11 percent of Wisconsinites falls under the poverty line, less than 1 percent receives welfare, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Even in volatile economic times, the welfare system is hardly a safety net for anyone. We should try to offer help to those who need it, and restructuring welfare could benefit a great deal of people in serious need.

While the restructuring we need does involve cuts to corrections, on the whole we would need to generate revenue. Walker’s tax cuts could be rolled back to generate revenues, and some taxes in the state could also be raised. The state sales tax is a low 5 percent, and we could responsibly raise it to strengthen the state’s social services. Because sales tax is regressive, any increase in the sales tax should be paired with a revenue neutral income tax adjustment to assure that the poor are not made poorer.

Our state’s budget priorities are severely misplaced – we should be focused on strengthening programs that help our state. Walker’s misplaced faith in tax cuts will only hurt the state, and his philosophy of small government is disastrous for those who need its assistance.

Spencer Lindsay ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in political science.