June 15, 2007
Volume
#29, Issue #19
JOINT COMMITTEE ON FINANCE COMPLETES BUDGET ACTION; BILL MOVES ON TO THE
SENATE-On Friday, June 8, the Joint
Committee on Finance (JFC) completed its action on the state
budget. The committee concluded seven weeks of votes with an 8-8 party line vote on the
amended
version of the Governor’s budget. The eight Democrats on the committee voted for the
amended
document, indicating that the Democrat-controlled State Senate will work off of this
version budget in the
coming weeks. The eight Republican members voted against the JFC budget package,
indicating that the
version of the budget passed by the Republican-controlled Assembly will differ greatly
from the one
constructed by the bi-partisan committee.
While predicting the time frame for legislative activity is much
like predicting in June whether there will be
snow on the ground for Christmas, there does seem to be some consensus on what is likely
to happen in
the coming weeks. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB), the legislature’s number
crunchers, is preparing a
summary document of JFC action to brief the rest of the legislature. Once that is
completed, the State
Senate will take action on the budget, their work likely beginning in the next week or
two. The State Senate
is expected to pass their budget before the end of the month. If this occurs, the State
Assembly will most
likely take up the budget after the fourth of July.
After that it is anybody’s guess as to how quickly a conference committee would be
convened to negotiate
the differences between the two houses and come to a resolution. The Governor would likely
take another
four to six weeks to review the document and exercise his line item veto authority over
the final document.
GOVERNOR’S COMPENSATION RESERVES OK’D - One of the final actions by JFC was the vote on
the Governor’s budget for the state employee compensation reserves. This is the pot
of money the state
sets aside for bargaining wage and benefit packages for state employees. AFSCME engaged in
an
extensive lobbying effort of JFC members to preserve the compensation reserves, and at the
end of the
day the funding remained intact. We must now turn our attention to the full legislature to
ensure that
lawmakers preserve the comp reserves.
NURSING HOME FUNDING: THE SAGA CONTINUES - AFSCME asked the JFC to provide a 5% total
increase in funding for nursing homes. The Governor had recommended a 2% increase. On the
last day of
the budget deliberations, the Committee ultimately voted to approve the Governor’s 2%
boost. The money
for the 2% increase will come from the proposed hike in the nursing home "bed
tax" from $75 to $127. A
plan to use general tax dollars instead of bed tax dollars failed on an 8-8 vote. That
plan was offered by
Rep. Kitty Rhoades (R-Hudson).
Senate Democrats have pledged to amend the budget to provide more dollars for financially
strapped
nursing homes.
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