Walker trims budget with veto pen
Gov. Scott Walker signs the 2011-13 Biennial Budget at Fox Valley Metal Tech in Ashwaubenon
Scott Walker’s 2011-13 biennial budget was dissected, edited and added to by the Joint Finance Committee and legislature, but once it arrived back on his desk it was his to shape and craft with one of the most powerful line-item veto pens in the nation.
The final budget tops $66 billion, but special interest groups and legislators who didn’t get their way on the chamber floor lobbied Walker over the last week for hundreds of vetoes. He didn’t heed them all and made just 50, leaving in some of the largest cuts, including $800 million in cuts to public education and changes to BadgerCare programs that could eliminate health care to almost 73,000 citizens.
He unveiled his vetoes at a signing ceremony at Fox Valley Metal Tech in Ashwaubenon where he spoke of bipartisanship, business recovery and middle class growth. He made no mention of the five months of protests and strife that had taken hold of Madison over Wisconsin Act 10 or this budget. However, protesters were in full force outside the Green Bay area business, making their position known.
“We’ve already made a positive difference and we’re starting to see our state turn around. During the first five months of this year, Wisconsin has added some 26,400 new private sector jobs. Of those, 13,100 were in manufacturing. Our farming economy is starting to improve, too. In fact, agricultural exports are up about 30 percent from last year. And tourism expenditures are up 1.8 percent. ”
Photos by New Media Meade
“This budget reflects a return to the bedrock principles of our state’s constitution – frugality and moderation. It’s a budget that is, for the first time in many years, balanced – now and in the future – with a structural surplus of over $300 million in the 2013-15 biennium. It avoids relying on accounting gimmicks, fund raids and one-time funds. With this budget, we have begun to put our state’s financial house in order and make our finances more transparent.”
While Walker didn’t heed all of the advice and lobbying he received over the last week, he did undo some of the work done by the legislature.
What’s gone
Walker sided with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in eliminating a last-minute budget addition that would have allowed fired Milwaukee officers to collect full pay while they appeal their dismissals to the Fire and Police Commission. Officers can be fired by either the Milwaukee chief or the Commission, while only police commissions or city councils have that power in other municipalities.
The practice of officers being paid while appealing their firings arose after the beating of Frank Jude, where officers were fired for their role in the case. Most of those officers were charged and convicted of felonies, including, civil rights violations, and lost their positions; however they were paid thousands while their cases worked through the courts and appeals.
The previous legislature changed that practice, which has saved the city almost $300,000 over the last two years. Currently, when a MPD officer is dismissed and appeals there is no pay unless the firing is overturned. When that occurs, back pay is provided to the officer.
Barrett praised this veto, saying it would have severely impacted Milwaukee taxpayers and that it is an issue that needed the light of legislative debate.
“We are certainly prepared to make our case on separate, free-standing legislation,” Barrett said.
In a victory for more open government, Walker vetoed a provision that would have required people to travel to the Madison offices of the Government Accountability Board to obtain economic interest statements filed by public officials. The budget proposed stopping the use of e-mail to disperse these documents.
Walker said he vetoed the provision because it “violates the principles of transparency and open government that are fundamental to public oversight and a key tenet of my administration.”
A proposed space station in Sheboygan is gone, with Walker cutting the $10,000 earmark for the project from the 2011-13 budget. This provision was the butt of jokes by the Democratic caucus during the Assembly budget debate, even prompting Rep. Andy Jorgensen (D-Fort Atkinson) to proclaim, “Sheboygan, we have a problem” in regard to the budget.
Walker said he objects to earmarks within the budget and that this measure was a blatant example of what doesn’t belong in the budget.
Walker vetoed a measure which would have removed the tax-exempt status of a Madison apartment building owned by the Presbyterian Church.
In 2009, the then-legislature passed a measure that exempted properties owned by non-profit organizations which had at least 90 percent of its residents enrolled at UW-Madison. The Presbyterian House paid no property taxes on their apartment building in 2010. The South-Central Wisconsin Apartment Association decried this exemption as taking more property off tax rolls, and probably as an unfair advantage against their members.
The Presbyterian House said the rents collected from the apartments were used for mission work, provided scholarships and volunteer opportunities to students and was a legitimate ministry.
In his veto letter, Walker said the repealing the tax exemption would place a substantial burden on current and potential UW-Madison housing that provides unique services, including “scholarships for residents, student worship groups and volunteer services not available at university or commercial student housing facilities.”
The American Cancer Association is praising Walker for his veto of a proposed change from price-based taxation of chewing tobacco to weight-based. The change would have lowered the retail price of chew. Walker said he vetoed the change because he felt the lower price of the product would make it more attractive to children.
“Wisconsin’s current ad valorem tax on moist snuff tobacco products maintains a level playing field field and minimizes the attractiveness to youth, helping to improve public health.
While there are many fans of “Dog the Bounty Hunter” out there, don’t be looking for a Wisconsin version anytime soon. Walker scratched legislation to allow bail bondsmen to operate in the state.
Legislators said bail bondsmen would make the courts more efficient by ensuring people would appear for court dates. But the Chairman of the Chief Judges John Storck said the use of bail bondsmen would cloud the issue of due process and fairness in the system and lead to corruption.
Walker said he sees the benefit of bail bondsmen, including the additional revenue a $1,000 licensing fee would raise, but he vetoed the item saying it had not been given enough time for review by the legislature. He added he would welcome separate legislation on the subject to ensure the proper implementation of bail bondsmen in the state.
Walker vetoed a provision that would have required the transitional jobs program to use only for-profit businesses for placements. Instead, Walker returned non-profits to the job mix.
“Currently 51 percent of transitional jobs placements area with non-profit host sites such as hospitals and community agencies,” Walker said. “These placements provide valuable work experience to individuals and give these individuals the skills to move into unsubsidized employment.”
Walker also changed the wording of the language defining who is exempt from the collective bargaining restrictions in Act 10 to include Emergency Medical Services providers. This move adds EMTs to the protected class of workers who can still bargain for benefits, as opposed to the majority of public employees who are limited to bargaining for wages.
Other vetoes included:
- Eliminating the gathering of fingerprints from all child care providers, but requiring them of providers in the Wisconsin Cares program.
- Eliminating a Board of Regents review and approval of UW-Madison compensation, personnel system plans and labor agreements. This will give UW-Madison more autonomy, which was originally sought by the governor.
- Eliminated the requirement that racial data be collected during traffic stops.
- Eliminated the requirement that choice schools report family income data to the Department of Revenue. Instead the data will continue to be reported to the Department of Public Instruction, which will forward it to other state deparments.
- Eliminated sections of the Wisconsin Retirement System vesting requirements, making it mandatory that employees work 5 years before they are vested in the system.
- Eliminated the minimum property tax levy increase of 1.5 percent after 2013, so there is not an automatic levy increase without knowledge of current growth conditions. Walker maintained the property tax freeze for the tax years 2011 and 2012, which he said will save Wisconsin homeowners approximately $700 per household.
What’s still in
Walker retained language that would make it illegal for a beer brewer to also own a wholesale distributorship or tavern. The language was opposed by craft brewers and some Republicans for stymieing the growth of Wisconsin small businesses. The Wisconsin Beer Distribution Association said the bill will protect state businesses by blocking attempts by Anheuser-Busch from buying its own distribution network across the state.
He also left language in the bill that expands school choice to Milwaukee County schools and to Racine, but he did not expand the program to other districts, yet.
For a full look at Walker’s veto message click here.
