GOVERNOR UNVEILS BUDGET

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Gov. Jim Doyle proposed a budget Tuesday that closes more than 40 regional service centers, bets that more criminals can be safely released from prisons and raises income taxes on capital gains and couples with taxable incomes of $300,000 or more. To close a budget gap that has grown to $5.7 billion by mid-2011, the Democratic governor said he used $2.1 billion in federal stimulus cash to protect education and health care programs. He slashed new spending requests and said there would be no pay raises for state workers in the next two years. For what may be the first time in state history, general-fund spending will drop for the fiscal year that begins July 1, by about 5%. Total state spending - including tuition, fees and federal aid - will rise, however.
Doyle said he had no choice but to ask the Legislature to approve $1.4 billion in tax increases - the largest reworking of the tax codes in decades. The tax increases include: $540 million paid from oil company profits; $318 million by creating a new 7.75% tax rate for the richest 1% of taxpayers; $290 million in higher taxes on cigarette smokers; $215 million in higher corporate income taxes; and more than $85 million paid on capital gains.

"My budget stands up for the people who earn regular paychecks and the people who, through no fault of their own, have lost theirs," Doyle said. But Assembly Republican Leader Jeff Fitzgerald of Horicon said the plan was larded with tax increases at a time when Doyle's fellow Democrats control the Legislature. "There's nobody here to protect the taxpayer," Fitzgerald said.

Budget Highlights
* Create a new income tax bracket, with a tax rate of 7.75%, for 1% of taxpayers with the highest incomes, costing them $318 million over two years.
* Raise Wisconsin's tax on capital gains, costing taxpayers more than $85 million.
* Tax oil companies, raising $540 million over two years.
* Raise the $1.77 per pack state tax on cigarettes to $2.52, costing smokers $290 million more over two years.
* Authorize police stops of vehicles for suspected seat belt violations, qualifying Wisconsin for more than $15 million in federal funds.
* Grant hospital-visitation rights and provide other benefits to same-sex couples who are state workers.
* Eliminate pay raises for state workers for two years.
* Put levy limits of 3%, or new growth in communities, to control property tax bills.
* Abolish the qualified economic offer law that has limited teachers' raises since 1994.
* Require that vehicles have only one license plate, saving an unspecified amount.