June 22, 2007
Volume
#29, Issue #20
LEGISLATORS CHISELING AWAY AT THE STATE BUDGET; STATE SENATE DEMOCRATS
EXPECTED TO VOTE ON JUNE 26 - Senate Democrats have been caucusing on the
state budget for
several weeks now and are expected to unveil their budget package on Monday. The Senate
Democrat's
plan will be based on the Governor's budget proposal as modified by the Joint Committee on
Finance, but
will likely be amended to include comprehensive health care coverage for Wisconsin
residents. Details of
the health care plan will be announced on Sunday, June 24, and then can be found on
Senator Judy
Robson's website: http://www.legis.state.wi.us/senate/sen15/news/.
Assembly Republicans also are caucusing on the budget, and they'll present their budget
priorities
sometime later next week. There has been talk about the Assembly GOP wiping out the
Governor's budget
entirely and rebuilding from the 2007 base year budget. Their goal is to pass a no tax
increase budget.
However, this is a tall order for their caucus because certain parts of the Joint Finance
version of the
budget are important to Republican caucus members. For example, the budget items that
sailed through
committee on 16-0 votes are more than likely to be included in the Assembly plan. Those
issues include
funding for W-2/TANF and child care assistance for low-income families, as well as the
omnibus
"Corrections Package" that includes money and state jobs to implement the
state's new law that requires
monitoring of child sex offenders as well as additional security staff positions for
correctional institutions.
The Joint Finance Committee was not able to fashion a compromise on nursing homes or
transportation,
and now both houses are under tremendous pressure to solve the nursing home funding crisis
and to
deliver a sound transportation budget. AFSCME is lobbying hard on these two topics.
Your union needs you to contact your State Senator and Assembly representative now
to urge them to
support a nursing home fix and pass a strong transportation budget. Call 1-800-362-9472
during regular
work hours and ask that your message be delivered to your two legislators or e-mail their
offices. We can't
stress enough how important your grassroots lobbying efforts are to achieving the goals
we've set forth.
The Joint Finance Committee also approved, by unanimous consent, the Governor's budget
relating to the
state employee compensation reserves, but we remain ever vigilant against any effort to
raid this pot of
money to fund other programs. While we have heard of no serious threat to the comp
reserve, we cannot
take the Joint Finance support for granted.
When both houses are done with their respective budget plans, the dueling budgets will
have to be
reconciled in a joint Senate/Assembly "conference committee", which won't be
assigned until after both
houses complete their work.
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