BUDGETMANIA!
THE ANGLE
In this corner, we have the Senate Democrats, who took control of the legislature’s upper chamber after last year’s election.
Flexing their muscles, the Senate Dems passed a $66.1 billion version of the 2007-2009 budget, featuring a controversial $15.2 billion universal health care program. The Senate’s “Healthy Wisconsin” plan for universal coverage would provide all Wisconsin residents with the same coverage members of the legislature have. It would be paid for by a new payroll tax on businesses and workers.
And in the other corner, we have the Assembly Republicans, who retain control of the lower chamber and have rallied around their commitment to oppose any new taxes.
Among the dubious provisions slipped into the budget by the Assembly Republicans is a sales tax break for people who buy gold bullion and the elimination of funding for the University of Wisconsin’s law school.
That latter proposal came courtesy of Representative Frank Lasee (R-Green Bay), who last time we heard from him wanted Wisconsin to arm its teachers to prevent violence in schools. He feels we have too many lawyers, which is pretty ironic coming from someone in government.
It is shaping up to be quite a fight, as Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson’s (D—15th Sentate District) “Health Care for All” Progressives take on Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch’s (R—9th Assembly District) “No New Taxes” Conservatives in a brutal, no-holds barred, match to the death.
THE BOOKER
In the wonderful and wacky world of wrestling, it is the booker who decides the outcome of the match. Without ever stepping into the ring, the booker writes the storylines for the feuds that drive the ratings, deciding who wins and loses, who gets promoted and who falls down through the ranks. Occasionally popular opinion can sway the booker, but smart money is almost always on who he or she favors. After all, the booker works for the wrestling company and holds the heavy responsibility of making sure the money comes in and everything comes off without a hitch.
Wisconsin’s constitution gives a very special role in influencing the budget to its governor, who is said to hold the broadest veto power of any governor in the United States so chances are good that the “No New Taxes” hardliners on the Assembly side can’t be very happy that their old nemesis, Governor Jim Doyle, is the current occupant of the Capitol’s East Wing.
With a strong re-election under his belt and his fellow Democrats in control of the Senate, Doyle is hardly a neutral spectator in the budget process. Both the Senate and Assembly budgets were reactions to Gov. Doyle’s initial $58.2 billion budget submitted last February. Doyle’s budget proposes expanding state support for education and local government. In addition, his “BadgerCare Plus” proposal would extend health coverage to 98 percent of Wisconsin residents, including all of the state’s children and many of its uninsured adults. Funding would come in part from a proposed $1.25 per pack cigarette tax increase, as well as a new 0.8 percent tax on hospitals intended to leverage more federal funding for Medicaid programs.
Doyle’s budget also includes tax relief for the middle class, always a crowd favorite, in the form of deductions for health care premiums and expanded support for the cost of college.
THE FEUD
The legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, including Republicans and Democrats from the Assembly and Senate, held hearings on the Governor’s budget and voted to largely leave it intact. But then the Democrats in the Senate added their Healthy Wisconsin plan to its version and the Republican Assembly responded by shredding the budget of Doyle’s initiatives and adding their own boutique tax cuts and selective budget cuts.
It doesn’t require much imagination to see what Gov. Doyle thinks of the Assembly version of the budget. He spent much of July traveling to nearly every town and hamlet in the state, urging their citizens to “join the fight against the extreme budget passed by the Assembly.”
The Assembly reduced aid to counties across the board by 5 percent but singled out Democratic-leaning municipalities of Milwaukee, Racine, Beloit and Superior for cuts of 12.5 percent.
Mayor Barrett told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the reduction in aid is the equivalent of shutting down the entire city library system or laying off 150 police officers or firefighters.
THE FINISH
Both sides have dug in their heels, each apparently having calculated that their position will result in political advantage during next year’s state legislative elections.
The Senate and Assembly have each sent four members to a conference committee, the legislature’s equivalent of a steel cage, and charged them with producing yet another version of the budget that must pass both houses.
That version then goes to the governor, who has broad powers to veto and even rewrite the budget before it goes back to the legislature, where it must then receive final approval from both houses.
Speaker Huebsch and his fellow Republicans are wary of making concessions to Gov. Doyle and the Democrats, but they may have little choice. Twelve years ago, Newt Gingrich and the newly ascendant Republicans in Congress tried to force budget and tax cuts down the throat of President Bill Clinton, but Clinton called their bluff and the federal government was temporarily shut down. Public opinion turned against Congress and a compromise was worked out.
Similar tactics here would likely garner the same public sentiment. Here in Wisconsin, both sides have at least one eye on next year’s election and it’s hard to imagine voters will look kindly on gridlock.
So pull up a chair and pay attention to the coming blowoff of this bitter feud. The outcome will affect much more than ratings – it is likely to impact the quality of life of nearly every Wisconsin resident. VS
