[media-credit name=’JAKE NAUGHTON/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]State legislators divided across partisan lines still have not agreed on a biennial budget, making Wisconsin the only state in the country that has not passed its 2007-09 report.

Originally slated for completion by July 1, 2007, the budget is now expected to pass in late September.

Joshua Wescott, spokesperson for Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit, said the state government has not suffered from lack of a budget.

“If there isn’t a budget passed, the state functions on the existing budget,” Wescott said.

Democrats, who hold the majority in the state Senate, would rather have the state operate under the existing budget than accept the Republican Assembly’s new version, which cuts funding for UW, Westcott added.

“Senate Democrats are not going to accept a budget that leaves thousands of college kids in limbo with financial aid,” Wescott said. “This is make or break for lots of kids.”

Democrats continue to fight for funding for UW, Wescott said, because they believe the Assembly budget takes away too much money from higher education.

“The UW System is our state’s economic engine and cannot afford the Assembly Republican budget,” Wescott said. “The UW System should be fully funded so they can continue to be one of the best institutions in the country.”

But Carrie Lynch, spokesperson for Sen. Russell Decker, D-Madison, said in addition to higher education, Republicans and Democrats continue to feud on a variety of issues.

“There are some pretty big reasons why we haven’t passed a budget,” Lynch said. “In the long run, if we can pass [the Democrats'] version of the budget, taxpayers will save money.”

The disputed homestead tax credit, Lynch said, allows renters to receive a property tax credit. Lynch said the Assembly’s budget would cut this, thereby preventing 81,000 lower income renters — including students — from getting money back from the state.

However, Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abottsford, said Senate Democrats have proposed the highest tax increase in Wisconsin history, and Assembly Republicans are striving not to raise taxes.

"The state Senate has the largest tax increase … in the country to the tune of $18 billion," Suder said. "When you have this massive tax increase proposals versus the Assembly's no-increase proposal, [Republicans and Democrats] are light years apart."

Suder said taxpayers are not upset the budget remains incomplete because they're too worried the tax increase proposed by the Democrats — about $1,500 per person — will pass.

Jay Heck, director of the nonpartisan group Common Cause in Wisconsin said it is ludicrous for the state budget to remain incomplete more than two months after the statutory deadline.

“The primary function of the Wisconsin Legislature is to pass a budget,” Heck said. “They’re not even close to an agreement.”

Wisconsin law allows legislators to hold campaign fundraising events with the budget under consideration. Therefore, according to Heck, budget discussions drag on because until the budget is finalized, special interest groups feel compelled to make campaign contributions due to their vested interest in the budget.

“We think there should be no campaign fundraising while the budget is under consideration because it is corrupting,” Heck said. “They should be working on the budget, not on raising money for the next election.”

Heck said the budget would have been finalized months ago if legislators were not allowed to campaign with the budget in contention.

With no penalty for not completing the budget on time, Heck said legislators do not have a strong incentive to finalize a budget.

“Every day after June 30, legislators should have been meeting and hashing this out until they came up with a compromise,” Heck said. “It has been very leisurely, almost as if it doesn’t really matter.”