Door County Style

Notes from the West Wing: on Wisconsin’s State Budget as Passed by Assembly

Posted on 15. Jun, 2009 by Garey Bies in News

Wisconsin’s State Budget as Passed by Assembly

Good afternoon from the State Capitol.  It is Monday afternoon and I am just starting to feel human again after being run through an all-night state budget session on the floor of the State Assembly Friday evening into Saturday morning.  This is my fifth state budget process and to date I have never experienced anything like this.  I honestly have no idea why the Assembly Democrats are making a habit of going late into the night for budget deliberations.  This time, they did not even bring us to the floor until 5:30pm Friday night after holding closed door meetings all day apparently in an effort to assemble the necessary votes to pass their budget.

The result of the all-day vote-garnering meetings by the Democrats yielded both the 50 votes they needed to pass their budget and a host of new congressional-like earmarks.  Almost two weeks ago I wrote about a state budget full of pork.  Well, not only is that pork still in the budget, the Assembly Democrats have added a bunch more from a Root River Community Center to the Turtle Island Park in the City of Beloit and $2 million for the Oneida Sevens Corporation.  To get a full list of the almost 90 items of pork in the Assembly Budget follow this link: http://www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/June09/june15/0615lfbmemo.pdf

It is an embarrassing budget and not only did I vote against it, there was bi-partisan opposition as even a pair of Democrats voted against it.  But before I and my colleagues voted against the budget bill, we tried hard to make changes.  We offered to the Democrats approximately 130 amendments and while they may boast of being bi-partisan, nothing could be further from the truth as every single one of our amendments was voted down.  Here is just a small sample of the amendments we offered:

1)      Offer more money to Tech Colleges for job training (FAILED)

2)      Lower Levy Limits to keep property taxes from increasing (FAILED)

3)      Save School Choice Program from dismantling (FAILED)

4)      Delete Earmarks (FAILED)

5)      Require binding referenda for Regional Transit Authorities (FAILED)

6)      Remove cell phone tax (FAILED)

7)      Remove Gas Tax (FAILED)

8)      Eliminate auto insurance mandates that will raise premiums (FAILED)

9)      Eliminate worst of the worst felons from early prison release (FAILED)

As the majority party it is fully within the Democrats’ rights and power to craft their own budget and move it through the Assembly but they cannot claim bi-partisan support nor do they have anyone but themselves to blame for what they come up with.  Of course, if you support higher taxes and spending then you should be very happy with this budget but it seems the new Democratic party does not even understand what tax-and-spend means.  During the budget process the Democrat Assembly Co-Chair of the Joint Committee on Finance remarked that their budget neither increases taxes or spending.  In fact, just today the Finance Chairs says:

“This budget makes tough spending cuts, protects working families from tax increases…” – Rep. Mark Pocan

It is clear that what the Democrats are saying and doing are two entirely different things.  I hate to have such a partisan bent to my budget updates but the fact is the Democrats have made their budget incredibly partisan and the evidence of this is the systematic rejection of all our amendments.  In the world of partisan politics the new Democrat Majority has taken the Wisconsin Assembly to a whole new level.  It is unfortunate.

Next up for the state budget is the State Senate.  Indications are that the Democrats there will be making significant changes to the bill; it will be interesting to see what those changes will be.

As always, I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.wisconsin.gov or by telephone, toll-free at 1-888-482-0001.  You can also visit my website at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm01/news/.

Tags: State Representative Garey Bies