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From: "WisPolitics Staff" <news@wispolitics.com>
Date: Tue, 01 Mar 2011 16:05:24 -0600
To: <swilliams@wseu-24.org>
ReplyTo: info@wispolitics.com
Subject: (WisPolitics) ALERT! -- Guv calls for honest budget to finally fix state finances -- 1 March 2011
1 March 2011
Exclusively for WisPolitics Platinum Subscribers
From WisPolitics.com ...
-- Gov. Scott Walker today unveiled a "reform budget'' he says finally deals with the state’s fiscal issues in an honest way after years of mismanagement by both sides.
Walker hailed his budget for reducing all funds spending by $4.2 billion, a cut of 6.7 percent, and said it would result in a structural deficit of $250 million, down 90 percent and the lowest structural deficit in recent history.
To accomplish it, Walker proposed $1.7 billion in GPR cuts -- much of that in aid to schools and local governments -- and rejected more than $600 million in agency spending requests. Other savings were found through allowing UW-Madison to split off from the UW System and through his austerity measures for state workers, restructuring debt, and other cuts and lapses.
“We will do the heavy lifting to protect our children and grandchildren from having to make the hard decisions that were once avoided,” Walker planned to say, according to prepared remarks.
Walker also pledged no tax increases, no fee hikes and no fund raids.
And while he blamed both parties for past bad budgeting practices -- including Gov. Scott McCallum’s use of tobacco money to plug a hole in 2002 and Gov. Jim Doyle’s use of money from the Patients Compensation Fund in 2007 -- Walker included a new call for Senate Dems to return to the Capitol to allow a vote on his budget repair bill:
"Again, this is why it is so vitally important for the Senate democrats to come back and do their jobs. If they do not, our schools face massive layoffs of teachers. However, if they do come back, overall savings for schools across the state will outweigh reductions, ultimately allowing schools to put more money in the classroom.''
Walker tried to answer the question: what will happen next?
“Well, I'm an optimist,'' Walker said in his prepared remarks. ``I believe that after our budget repair bill passes, tempers will cool, and we will find a way to continue to work together to help grow our economy. We will position Wisconsin to emerge from this economic downturn stronger than ever, with new opportunities for our workers and our families.”
Come back to the WisPolitics.com Budget Blog for more after the speech:
http://budget.wispolitics.com/
See the guv's prepared remarks:
http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=228590
See the budget executive summary:
http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=228589
See the Budget in Brief:
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/2011_13_Budget_in_Brief.pdf
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