AFSCME Wisconsin Legislative Report

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Gov.’s Two-Year Budget Plan Will Hurt Workers, Schools, our Communities and the Future of our State

It is our tradition to do an in-depth summary of the budget every two years when the state’s biennial budget is introduced. This year is no different. What is different is the magnitude of the potential damage in this budget proposal. Your lobbying team is in the process of reviewing the bill, and we have provided, in the following, a brief report on the budget. We will send more comprehensive report within a few days. So here are some tips, for starters, and we thank you for your patience.

The two year budget bill was introduced March 1 as two separate, identical, companion bills. They are 2011 Assembly Bill 40 and 2011 Senate Bill 27. The 1,345 page budget bill(s) have been referred to the Joint Committee on Finance. To see Senate version of the bill, go to the Legislature’s website at http://legis.wisconsin.gov/SB27.pdf.

Ironically, reading the budget bill is not always the best way to get an idea of what is being proposed. The reason is that the budget (just like any piece of legislation) amends current law, that is, current statutes. A policy change may involve amending several areas of the statutes, and to see the whole policy, one might have to look in several places in the budget to get the full picture. It’s sort of like trying to make a puzzle without having all of the pieces on hand. It can be confusing to piece this together, even for the most experienced policy analyst or lawyer (or legislator!).

The budget bill is drafted by a small army of lawyers employed by the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) whose job is to take the policy instructions of the Governor’s office, and write the policy as statute, in the form of a bill. The drafting attorneys also wrote the “LRB Analysis” of budget bill, which starts on page 1 of the document. That is another way to get a sense of what is contained in the budget.

To help legislators, the public and the press understand what is in the budget, the state Department of Administration (DOA) issues a “Budget in Brief” and an “Executive Summary” of the budget proposals. Those documents can be found on the DOA website at http://www.doa.state.wi.us/ or on www.thewheelerreport.com. Unfortunately, there is a lot of extraneous information in these documents, which can make it challenging to understand what is in the budget.

The very best sources of information about the budget - at this early stage - are press releases and news stories. The Wheeler Report and the WisPolitics budget blog post tons of information and analyses of the budget. State agencies, such as the Department of Employee Trust Funds (ETF), have helpful information on its site (http://etf.wi.gov/). Organizations such as the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families (www.wccf.org) and others are likely to issue preliminary responses to the budget. Soon, the WCCF and other highly regarded advocacy groups will likely issue in-depth analyses of parts of the budget.

The very best source of information on what is in the budget will come in two to three weeks from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB). A team of highly experienced budget analysts will pour over the details of the budget bill and will issue a budget summary. The Joint Finance Committee will commence its budget deliberations after the Legislative Fiscal Bureau summary is published. The LFB website can be found at http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/.

INITIAL REPORT ON THE GOVERNOR’S BUDGET PROPOSAL:

• Ethan Allen School for Boys would close on July 1 if this provision passes as proposed, and all male offenders will be housed at Lincoln Hills in Alma (near Merrill). Southern Oaks Girls School will eventually be closed and any teen girl offenders will be sent to what will be a new female unit at Lincoln Hills.

• School aid cuts with local revenue caps will cost schools over $750 per student. In a class of 30 kids, that classroom would lose $22,000 of funding.

• Tax cuts for the rich, tax hikes for the poor. When combined with his budget repair bill the Governor has cut taxes by over $200 million for corporations and the wealthiest people in Wisconsin. Meanwhile he raises taxes on the poorest in the state, reducing the Earned Income Tax Credit and Homestead Tax Credit by a combined $51 million.

• Transportation funding gets increased, and will total $5.7 billion. There is $410 million for highway funding over the base amount in the 2009-11 budget. This is the only portion of the budget that receives an increase. Meanwhile, general transportation aids are cut by 10%, or $81.6 million. General transportation aids provide local governments with a partial reimbursement of funds to offset the cost of county and municipal road construction, maintenance, traffic, and police costs.

• UW Madison will be privatized under this bill. Tuition will increase at least 20% as aid to UW System will be cut $250 million, with a $125 million cut at Madison.

• Technical Colleges will see a cut in state aid of $35 million, or 30%. In addition, Tech Colleges will be subject to a property tax levy limit of 0% (with an allowable increase for the value of new construction). This comes at a time when unemployment is up, and when workers as well businesses might benefit from retraining programs offered at the Tech Colleges.

For more information, see also the AFSCME Wisconsin website: www.wiafscme.org.