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AP analysis: Many promises broken in Wisconsin budget process

Scott Bauer
Associated Press  —  7/01/2009 6:37 am

Many promises were made and broken during the nearly five-month process of passing Wisconsin's new two-year budget.

Gov. Jim Doyle said the middle class would be protected while he and fellow Democrats in charge of the Legislature figured out how to solve a $6.6 billion budget shortfall, the largest in Wisconsin history.

Democratic leaders in the Assembly said they would work with Republicans under a new spirit of bipartisanship to pass the spending plan. And there was also talk of the process being more open.

All of the promises sounded good, but most didn't come true.

Here's a look at some that did, and some that didn't.

ON TIME: Doyle and Democrats who control the budget-writing committee, as well as the state Assembly and Senate, said their goal was to have the budget passed and signed into law by July 1, the start of the new budget year.

Meeting the deadline may not seem like a big deal, but consider that the last time Wisconsin lawmakers passed a budget on time was 1977, when Assembly Majority Leader Tom Nelson was just 1 year old.

In 2007, the budget didn't get done until a week before Halloween.

This was one promise Doyle and Democrats kept. After some long days and late-night votes, the governor signed the budget into law Monday, a full two days before the start of the new fiscal year.

BUDGET CUTS: Doyle and Democrats promised to make cuts, and they did. Spending from state tax dollars over the next two years will go down about 2.5 percent.

Doyle has ordered all 69,000 state workers to take 16 unpaid days off over the next two years. He also rescinded 2 percent pay raises for nonunion workers and asked union members to give up their raises as well.

If they don't, Doyle said that could lead to 400 layoffs on top of the 1,000 job cuts already expected as state agencies cut their budgets by 6 percent.

But despite all those cuts, overall state spending will increase by about 6.5 percent as Doyle and Democrats use about $3 billion in federal stimulus money to pay for schools, health care and other programs.

Republicans say it's disingenuous to talk about cutting state spending when overall spending is up, but Democrats say that without the federal money, important programs would be devastated.

NO NEW TAXES: Doyle repeatedly promised not to raise taxes on the middle class. He managed to not raise general sales, income, payroll or gas taxes, but wealthy families who bring in more than $300,000 a year will pay more in income taxes.

Also, anyone with capital gains will have to pay more taxes, as allowable exemptions drop from 60 percent to 30 percent.

Everyone will pay more to smoke, own a phone, buy a gun or register a boat as targeted taxes and fees increase by more than $2 billion.

And homeowners will see property taxes rise, although only about 3.2 percent on a home with a median value of $167,000.

FUNDRAISING BAN: The Assembly passed a rule in January banning members from collecting campaign donations while the budget was being debated. Nelson, the majority leader from Kaukauna, hailed it as the most significant campaign reform in a generation.

Five months later, with the budget still being debated, the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee organized a $1,000-a-head golf outing. Nelson, along with Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan, D-Janesville, planned to attend.

They initially argued the event didn't break the rule because the fundraiser was organized by a campaign committee, not an individual lawmaker.

After being lambasted by Republicans and in newspaper editorial pages, both Sheridan and Nelson said they would not attend the fundraiser and asked that it be rescheduled.

OPEN GOVERNMENT: Democrats talked a lot about wanting to do business openly after they took control of the Assembly following last year's election. One, Rep. Cory Mason of Racine, even introduced a bill to open party caucuses, the normally closed meetings where lawmakers hammer out positions and debate issues.

That bill has gone nowhere, and most of the work on the budget was done in secret as usual. Lawmakers held public hearings and voted in public, but most party causes remained closed. And many committee meetings and important votes in the Senate and Assembly were done in the middle of the night, when few were paying attention -- or even awake.

BIPARTISANSHIP: On the day Democrats elected Sheridan speaker, he said he wanted to work more closely with Republicans on reaching a budget deal. Nelson, the majority leader, said a bipartisan approach was "the only solution."

But even before the session started in December, Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, said finding a budget solution was "the Democrats' problem."

Then Democrats accused Republicans of never offering any ideas of their own.

In the end, little changed.

Republicans complained they were shut out of the process and all voted against the budget.

The only bipartisanship seen was when three Democrats joined with Republicans in voting no on the deal.


 

Scott Bauer
Associated Press  —  7/01/2009 6:37 am