NEWS AND NOTES ON A SATURDAY

40 Oshkosh teachers to get layoff notices
As many as 40 Oshkosh school teachers are expected to get layoff notices Monday, according to this story in the Oshkosh Northwestern. The layoffs come as the school district deals with an expected $2 million budget shortfall next year, according to the Northwestern. The job cuts are the third announced in Fox Valley schools in recent weeks, with Appleton and Kaukauna announcing more than 70 teacher layoffs earlier.

State corporate tax collections drop
Corporate income tax collections for the eight-month period ending in February fell 31.3%, the state Department of Revenue reported Friday. That was more than the 22.4% drop the Legislative Fiscal Bureau had projected for the budget year that ends on June 30.

City facing $1.7 million deficit
The City of Sheboygan is staring squarely at a minimum $1.7 million budget deficit for 2010, and began the long road of deciding how to balance the books Thursday night. About 40 people attended the Common Council's Committee of the Whole meeting, where aldermen painted a grim financial picture that officials said could see the deficit grow well beyond $2 million, unless drastic steps are taken to trim the budget.

The best thing about the nearly two-hour meeting, Ald. Cory Bouck said, was for city finance officials to get the bad news budget out to the public now, rather than waiting until late summer to begin tackling the massive shortfalls.

"Instead of just looking into the headlights, they turned the bright lights on and are looking farther down the road, and we saw a great big brick wall in front of our financial sports car moving down the highway," said Bouck, chairman of the Committee of the Whole.

Get the policy stuff out of the budget
What will it take to bring the legislature to its senses on all this policy stuff in the budget? Get it out, clear the decks, before you even start talking about the horrible financial situation the governor finds himself in. A Journal Sentinel article talks about one of those non-budget policy issues – whether or not to keep traffic-stop data secret. Interesting. Talks about the negotiations behind the scenes that connected a seat belt law (so as to not risk losing federal dollars) and racial profiling.

Outagamie, Winnebago and Brown Counties are three of eight named to participate in the pilot profiling test project. Milwaukee too, as you’d guess, is one of the counties that would begin additional specific record-keeping on traffic stops. So Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn, a guy with great professional credibility in my book, says it like it is. (Emphasis is mine.)

Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said that he can't blame Doyle for trying to make sure the state gets as much federal aid as possible.

But requiring that data on all traffic stops be compiled and reported is too important and complex an issue to be handled in a 1,743-page state budget bill, Flynn said.

"My concern is the language that is inside the budget is just dangerously vague," Flynn said. "It's too important to bury it in a budget bill."

Well, hear, hear.

Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net