March 14, 2008
Volume #30, Issue #8
PLUGGING THE HOLE
IN THE STATE BUDGET: ASSEMBLY BUDGET TARGETS STATE
WORKERS – AGAIN
- The State Assembly took up the
Governor’s budget adjustment bill late Wednesday
night, just two days after the bill was released. Without any public hearing or
substantive discussion, the
Republican controlled chamber made a drastic departure from the solution offered
by the Governor. The
most troubling change was language in the amendment that essentially directs the
Department of
Administration secretary to transfer or lapse $250 million in appropriations
from the general fund to make up
for the budget shortfall. No direction is provided as to where the secretary is
to find $250 million, just the
charge to do so. In short, the Republicans in the Assembly simply punted their
responsibility to DOA.
The Assembly budget is irresponsible and jeopardizes public services by failing
to provide the administration
with any tools to deal with the problem. If this version of the budget were to
be enacted, DOA would be
forced to carve up agency budgets, placing public services and employees
squarely on the chopping block.
The Governor’s original bill was essentially tossed aside by Assembly
Republicans, a bill that protects public
services and fills the budget shortfall with new revenues and state bonding.
One of the key pieces of the Governor’s bill is the State Hospital Assessment.
Federal law allows states to
place an assessment on the gross revenues of hospitals in their state. That
money can then be used to
capture matching federal Medicaid dollars to provide a Medicaid rate increase
for hospitals throughout
Wisconsin. By implementing the assessment, the state would free up $125 million
in state general purpose
revenue currently being used to support the Medicaid program to help manage the
budget deficit.
Unfortunately, this common sense solution, that would allow the state to recover
some more of the money that
Wisconsin taxpayers are already sending to Washington DC, was ignored by the
Republican controlled
Assembly. It appears many members of the Assembly would rather revisit the
draconian cuts they made to
public services during the protracted state budget debate, rather than bring
dollars back to Wisconsin that the
federal government is obligated to provide.
Another critical piece of the Governor's budget uses borrowing and transfers to
fill the budget hole. Under the
Governor's budget, $293 million is transferred from the transportation fund to
the general fund. This transfer,
along with a projected $40 million shortfall in the transportation fund, leaves
a deficit of $333 million in the
transportation fund. The Governor's bill replaces that money through three
different mechanisms. First, the
state would issue a general obligation bond of $190 million and place the bond
money into the transportation
fund. This bond would be paid back with money from the general fund, not
transportation dollars, to the tune
of $20.5 million a year for the next 10 years. Secondly, another bond of $67
million, that was originally
planned to be issued in the next biennial budget, would be moved up and issued
this year. This bond would
be repaid by the transportation fund, through dollars generated by registration
fees, at a rate of $5 million a
year for the next 20 years. Finally, on a positive note, the state will be
receiving $76 million more in federal
dollars than was originally budgeted for last fall. These three sources of
revenue completely replace the
transfers out of the transportation fund, maintaining the levels of funding
contained in the original budget
bill.
All AFSCME members should contact their legislators and tell them to adopt the
Governor’s budget
adjustment bill, support the hospital assessment, protect vital public services
throughout the state and reject
the Assembly’s slash and burn approach to budgeting. The Governor’s budget
protects state aid to local
governments through the Shared Revenue program, aid to public schools, aid to
county nursing homes, the
state employee Compensation Reserves, critical funding to state agencies
(including the increases made to
the Department of Corrections budget last summer) and vital assistance to fix
and maintain roads battered
by this winter’s storms. Anything less than full funding of these priorities
jeopardizes the health, safety and
welfare of the people of Wisconsin.
LEGISLATORS FAIL TO DELIVER ON
JOHN DOE REFORM - The
legislative session has ended, and
lawmakers failed to come up with a comprehensive bill to reform Wisconsin’s
outmoded John Doe law.
Legislators could not, or would not, come to the table to negotiate an agreement
on the two different and
competing versions of the John Doe reform bills.
The two competing bills, AB 695 and SB 537, were approved by the Assembly and
the Senate (respectively),
but that is not enough to make a law. A bill must be approved in identical
form by both houses, and sent to
the Governor, before it becomes law. Assembly and Senate leaders failed to
allow this essential negotiating
process to happen.
The current John Doe process allows anyone to go to a judge and complain that a
crime has been
committed. Some judges argue that the current John Doe law compels them to
conduct investigations of
the complaint and even issue charges based solely on the word of the
complainant. Inmates have been
exploiting this loophole in the interpretation of the law to harass corrections
officers.
It is unfortunate that our elected leaders failed to deliver the protections
that state workers so vitally need to
do their jobs without the threat of being subject to criminal investigations and
charges. AFSCME will not
give up the fight to right this wrong.
LEGISLATIVE WEBSITES. . .For those "online", here are some good info spots:
Wisconsin State Legislature: www.legis.state.wi.us/
"Who Are My Legislators": www.legis.state.wi.us./waml/
State of Wisconsin: www.wisconsin.gov/state/home
Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau: www.legis.state.wi.us/lrb/
Wisconsin Legislative Council: www.legis.state.wi.us/lc/
Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau: www.legis.state.wi.us/lfb/
Wisconsin Ethics Board: http://ethics.state.wi.us