Beginning last spring, lawmakers debated the best solution for repairing the state’s $1.1 billion budget deficit. Solutions varied from cuts to cities to cuts in funding for the University of Wisconsin System, but the budget deficit remains an important issue on the campaign trail this fall.

Gubernatorial candidates Gov. Scott McCallum and Attorney General Jim Doyle have both said they believe their opponent will be adding amendments that could add to the state’s deficit.

Rep. John Gard said the key to fixing the budget deficit is ensuring the state is “living within its means” and has outlined measures he believes will keep the state fiscally responsible.

“We do not have state budget problems because we tax our families too little. We face tough budgets because government spends too much,” Gard said. “It’s time to make government live within its means for a change, instead of avoiding tough decisions and forcing families to pick up the tab for their spending spree.”

Gard said his plan would get Wisconsin out of the state’s top 10 highest-taxed states in the nation and address taxpayers’ needs ahead of the government’s wants.

His plan includes ending the state’s credit spending, creating a spending cap, requiring the state’s taxpayers to approve any statewide referendum prior to tax-rate hikes, implementing a state-agency hiring cap and saving money.

“In Wisconsin, our income-tax burden ranks sixth-highest in the nation . . .” Gard said. “It’s easy to do the math on numbers like that. Our number-one priority must be controlling costs and cutting taxes.”

Gard does not deny that making changes in state spending will be difficult, but maintains that the change is necessary.

“Cutting spending is tough,” he said, “but when we duck making the tough decisions in the state budget we merely force those tough choices onto family budgets. That is wrong and must change.”

McCallum’s campaign said yesterday that Doyle’s tax and spending agenda will add $2.7 billion in new spending, effectively doubling the state’s deficit.

“In addition, the attorney general lists 18 other program increases of which the cost to taxpayers cannot be estimated due to the vagueness of the proposals,” said Debbie Monterrey-Millett, spokesman for McCallum’s campaign. “Doyle’s spending plan, coupled with the $2.8 budget deficit, will create a $5.5 billion state budget gap.”

If Doyle is elected, Gov. McCallum said in a release, the state faces a $2.8 billion budget deficit.

“By promising $2.7 billion in new spending, Jim Doyle is writing checks against a healthy future for Wisconsin’s families and businesses,” Gov. McCallum said. “Doyle’s spending spree will doom our state’s economy by forcing jobs out of the state and placing a higher tax burden on working people.”

McCallum said that among other increases, there could be a 31 percent increase in income tax and a 43 percent increase in sales tax.

But Doyle campaign director Bill Christofferson said the figures are inaccurate.

“They say that figures don’t lie, but liars figure. That’s certainly the case with this bogus math from Scott McCallum,” he said. “No matter how many phony numbers he puts out, McCallum can’t hide the truth — he is the one who has already cost Wisconsin taxpayers more than $10 billion.”

Christofferson said that while he was governor, McCallum made many budget mistakes.

According to Christofferson, “McCallum has cooked the state’s books, used false projections and Enron accounting to claim he’s balanced the budget, and ruined Wisconsin’s reputation with the bond houses, who have lowered our bond rating.”
“The lower bond rating alone will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in extra interest,” he said. “He’s mortgaged our future by selling off the $6 billion tobacco settlement for pennies on the dollar.