Shame, Shame, Shame

The Assembly passed the so-called budget repair bill this week, by a slim 51-46 margin. State Representative Joan Ballweg (R–Markesan), J.A. "Doc" Hines (R–Oxford), and John Townsend (R–Fond du Lac) were among those voting FOR this financial travesty. I have been reading a number of local and statewide blogs, which have highlighted the fiscal landmines in this document (a thanks to Bootsandsabers.com for many of these), and have to give this repair bill a LARGE EMPHATIC F GRADE.

* The cuts in this budget total less than one-half percent of the budget. So repairing a deficity does not mean cutting in Wisconsin, it means reallocating. Another sign we have elected people who cannot say NO.
* It includes another raid on the transportation fund, $50 million, creating a transportation fund deficit of $28 million. What does it mean for you and me? Get ready to pay back more debt (meaning interest) to pay back the bonds (with interest) that are covering that transportation fund deficit. This would be similar to taking your mortgage money to pay the grocery bill, and tapping your home equity credit line to pay the mortgage. More debt piled on more debt...
* Delaying $125 million in school aids into the 2009–11 budget cycle creates an instant $125 million addition to the state’s structural deficit. The Legislature already pushed another $125 million in debt payments from this budget to the next one, meaning we now have a QUARTER BILLION DOLLARS in deferred payments, simply because the Legislature can. Hello, U.S Bank, I will be making my June mortgage payment in July to balance the June family budget. You okay with
* It also delays until 2009–11 the implementation of the federal Real ID act, even though you saw your vehicle registration fees increase $10 to pay for this program. Do I get my money back??
* The 50 states have an average of $1 BILLION in their reserve funds. Wisconsin had $65 MILLION at the end of the 2008–09 fiscal year. It has now been reduced to $26.26 MILLION, as of June 30, 2009. That is just $1.26 MILLION more than the legally required $25 million balance. Another wise fiscal move. Who is advising the lawmakers? Some leftovers from Bear Stearns?????

Of course, what would a budget be without some "policy" issues stuck in their to keep a certain segment of the population happy.

* "If a school board establishes a four-year-old kindergarten (K4) program, the program must be available to all eligible pupils. Provide that a school board that is operating a K4 program in the 2007-08 school year that did not comply with this requirement would need to be in compliance by the beginning of the 2013-14 school year. Specify that a K4 pupil enrolled in such a program would be included in the definition of membership for revenue limit and general school aid purposes." - Keeps WEAC happy with the bill.
* Modify the property tax exemption for educational, religious and benevolent institutions, women’s clubs, historical societies, fraternities, and libraries to extend to low-income housing and exclude low-income housing from the “rent use” requirement under current law.
* Extend the current law exemption for eligible farmland from special assessments for the construction of a sewerage or water system by a town sanitary district or a town to camps.
This also does not have any numbers for it because it doesn’t hit the state budget. (We need to find out which lawmaker has a camp in his district which has been asking for this exemption)
* Modify current law related to the crime of escape by defining “custody” to include actual custody or authorized physical control of persons on probation, parole or extended supervision by the Department of Corrections or under the control of a correctional officer. (What part of a budget repair does this involve??????????????????????????)
* Revise current law relating to the date by which individuals must complete an initial training program before they can solicit, negotiate, or sell long-term care insurance. (See above)
* Specify that no person may possess, release, control, store, sell, or transport, any fish, or viable fish eggs that are of an invasive species, if the person knows, or should know, that the fish is, or the eggs of the fish are, of an invasive species. (Another idea which SHOULD be part of a separate piece of legislation)

And the future looks just as bleak. The current deficit, based on the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (which Wisconsin, unlike many states does not use, is estimated at $2.15 billion, according to the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance's calculations last June. The projected structural deficit, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, now stands at $1.7 billion for the next budget cycle. That new number is about $800 million higher than the estimate made in October, when the Legislature and Doyle agreed on the current state budget.


All in all, this is a classic example of applying a bandaid to a large, gaping wound, and hoping the voters/taxpayers are too stupid to notice until after November's election are in the history books.