Gov. Scott McCallum asked state lawmakers to send back his plan to repair the state’s budget deficit yesterday so he could make changes in the plan. The budget adjustment plan was introduced one week ago to the state Senate and Assembly but has not yet been formed into a piece of legislation.
McCallum’s plan to fix the state’s $1.1 billion deficit has been criticized for eliminating shared revenue, slashing money from the UW System, and borrowing money from the state’s tobacco settlement fund. The governor’s plan has not been introduced as a bill by lawmakers in either house.
Tim Roby, a McCallum spokesman, said the governor took back the 1,000-page bill to make minor changes in the language.
“This is really a drafting process,” Roby said. “Since the bill was sitting in there in no-man’s-land, [the governor] decided to make it technically correct.”
McCallum’s press secretary, Debbie Monterrey-Millett, said the plan was taken back to make some minor technical changes in the language. The plan will be back to the Senate by today at the latest.
The governor’s office said responsibility for introducing the budget into a bill is in the hands of Sen. Chuck Chvala, D-Madison, as Senate majority leader.
In a special session, there are only four committees that can introduce a bill. Mike Browne, Chvala spokesman, said the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization, a bipartisan group with members from the Senate and Assembly, offered the governor the chance to introduce the plan.
“He turned it down,” Browne said. “He had hoped to [introduce] it in a bipartisan fashion, but he turned it down.”
State Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, said neither he nor any other representative is taking the initiative to introduce the budget as legislation.
“No one wants to associate their name with the bill,” Black said. “Apparently it is not drafted well and it needs to be redrafted.”
The plan is unpopular because it shifts the burden of the state’s budget deficit onto local communities, said Black.
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, said no legislators are willing to introduce the bill despite the technical changes the governor is making to the plan.
“No one has been rushing to support this,” Pocan said. “Everyone is distancing themselves from the bill.”
The budget plan introduced by the governor is not very effective, said Pocan.
“I think it is a good sign there is something wrong with the plan,” Pocan said. “The governor developed it in secret and now we would like to have some public hearings on it.”
Pocan said Assembly Democrats plan to have public hearings across the state before they offer an alternate plan to fix the budget deficit.
“The governor had months to develop the plan and we want to talk to the constitutents about the budget,” Pocan said. “That’s what the budget is really about.”
“This plan will test the fortitude of the legislature,” Monterrey-Millett said. “No one has come up with any suggestions, but we will work with local leaders.”
