Conservatively Speaking
State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) represents parts of four counties: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, and Walworth. Her Senate District 28 includes New Berlin, Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, Muskego, Waterford, Big Bend and parts of Greenfield, East Troy, and Mukwonago. Senator Lazich has been in the Legislature for more than a decade. She considers herself a tireless crusader for lower taxes, reduced spending and smaller government.
Wisconsin's unbalanced budget
By Mary Lazich
Monday, Feb 12 2007, 11:27 AM
Governor Jim Doyle is quite busy lately, proposing cigarette tax increases, hospital increases, car registration fee increases, and the Governor is quite busy proposing hundreds of millions of dollars in new programs. Instead of creating new ways to tax us and inventing ways to spend more of our money, the Governor must pause for a moment and fix an existing budget shortage, and must do it quickly.
During the fall campaign, Governor Doyle kept telling us he balanced the budget. We are finding out that isn't the case. Here is what the Wheeler Report is reporting about the situation.
FINANCE'S FIRST TEST: FIX CURRENT BUDGET.
The equally-divided Joint Finance Committee gets its first budgeting test (this) week when Gov. Doyle sends it a bill to adjust spending for the current fiscal year. The latest figures from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau project a gross ending balance of $110,680,400. After deducting the $65 million required statutory balance, the net balance on June 30 would be $45,680,400.
However, the Fiscal Bureau report also listed $99.3 million shortfall facing four programs. They are:
o Office of the Public Defender. $9.2 million to pay for private bar.
o BadgerCare. $5.6 million to fully support the program for the year.
o Dept of Corrections. $38 million to cover increased expenses including salary and fringe benefits and overtime for the Division of Adult Institutions; contract bed funding; and, inmate health services costs.
o Wisconsin Works (W-2), Child Care and Related Programs. $46 million to fund the various operations, including $31 million resulting from higher than anticipated enrollment and cost per child.
DOA Secretary Morgan has already told state agencies they'll face an additional 2% in reductions in administrative spending. That move is expected to lower spending requirements for the fiscal year by $15.1 million. It is expected Doyle's proposal will involve a combination of reductions in state spending and lowering or eliminating the required statutory balance for this year. Eliminating the required statutory balance would result in about $125 million being available for appropriation and about $26 million available for a year-end balance.
