BUDGETING 101: Madison Style

Ok, we all know we face a $6.6 BILLION deficit, and that means some tough decisions have to be made, hopefully more decisions on ways to cut the amount of money the state takes in, keeping the money in our pockets. Unfortunately, it appears that is not the case, as we have come to witness another case of budgetary insanity in Madison.

First of all, when one has a budget deficit, one should NOT be increasing spending. Period. End of story. But that appears to be a forgotten rule for this committee:

MANDATES - School districts must provide transportation to pregnant students who live within two miles of school under the new budget. Wonderful! With all the pressures on local school budgets, we now have this new mandate to deal with. More examples of the nanny state gone wild in Wisconsin.

PORK - According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, which is usually pro-Democrat, the budget includes some questionable examples of partisan backscratching: Funding would be available for projects in million for the districts of key legislative Democrats, including: $6.6 million for the Bradley a Yahara River project in Dane County; $5 Center Sports and Entertainment Corp.; $4 million for planning a joint museum for the State Historical Society and Department of Veterans Affairs; $1.1 million for the AIDS Network and AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin; $500,000 for an environmental center in a park that borders Madison and Monona; $500,000 for the Oshkosh Opera House; $500,000 for Crosse; $250,000 for the Madison Children's Museum; Eco Park in La $50,000 for a consortium of seven Dane County schools; $50,000for the Chequamegon School District; and $37,200 for the City of Stanley in Chippewa County.

LANDFILL FEES - Under current law, cities and towns, including Ripon, have to pay $4.80 per ton of garbage we take to a landfill. The figure jumps to $5.90 per ton effective July 1. JFC Saturday to raise the fee to $13 per ton, even higher than the $10.29 per ton the Governor proposed. The money is supposed to be used, in part, to fund recycling programs, but, as Green Bay State Representative Karl Van Roy pointed out earlier this month, "According to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, between 1991 and 2008, $107.5 million was transferred from the recycling fund to the state's general fund to pay for programs completely unrelated to recycling, even though it is supposed to be a protected segregated account...In his proposed 2009-11 budget, Doyle completely eliminates the Clean Sweep Grant Program, the Recycling Efficiency Incentive Grant Program, and the Waste Reduction and Recycling Demonstration Grant Program. These programs were all funded by the Recycling Fund and clearly relate to the goal of reducing waste in our landfills. Instead, Doyle takes the money from those programs, and uses it to pay for the creation of a new UW System Bioenergy Center. ($8M, $4M each year)"

FUNNY FUND TRANSFERS - Governor Doyle proposed the oil company tax as a way for oil companies to pay for road construction and repairs in the state. It passed, and it WILL be passed on to you. The estimated revenues from the assessment on gross revenues is $103.6 million in 2009-10 and $156.4 million in 2010-11. Unfortunately, the committee approved transferring $140 million from the Transportation Fund to help balance the General Fund.

These are just a snapshot of some of the great work done by the Joint Finance Committee.