3/9/2007
Ellis on (budgeting) deceit
While Senator Ellis can turn complex policy into a sentence or two, he claims Governor Doyle has magically turned tax hikes into tax cuts! Ellis quips “No wonder the governor is proposing a third year of math and science for high school students. Talk about new math...”
Ellis and his staff have poured over the Fiscal Bureau’s budget analysis “finding one time bomb after another.” The roarin’ and raspy Senator points out that Doyle’s sleight of hand creates new segregated funds out of whole cloth. An example shows up on page 238 of the Fiscal Bureau’s review – the newly created “Health Care Quality Fund” (HCQF). Here’s where all those new taxes (“hospital tax”, “cigarette tax”) show up as Revenues.
Ok. Now look on the same page for HCQF Expenditures. This is $431M of spending that used to show up in the General fund (“GPR Base Funds”). Voila! $431M less spending in the General Fund just like magic!!
And $431M is apparently not enough for this new fund – the governor proceeds to add $180M of new spending. Now I’m screaming and pulling my hair out.
Senator Ellis calls Doyle’s claim of decreased General Fund spending “definitional deceit.” I call it deliberate deceit – and, as Ellis says, insulting.
And maddening. Shoot… are we stupid?
The Bottom Line
As Senator Ellis says, “The bottom line is the governor’s [2-year] budget extracts more than $1.5B from the private sector and uses it to grow government. That’s disastrous to the future of our great state.”
So here’s the question. How does the legislature handle all that new spending?
Senator Ellis says Doyle’s budget is worthless (well, he said it in a more colorful way than that…). And, he says, here’s a template for what to do:
- Start with the current, ’06-’07 budget. (Do NOT work off the governor’s so-called budget.)
- Add in $400M of new revenue that’s projected as a result of economic growth.
- Take out $481M of spending that was funded the last go-round with one-time monies
- And lastly MAKE PRIORITIES (amazing, but true) and stick to them.
- Accommodate increased Medical Aid funding
- Maintain 2/3 funding for K-12 (must keep QEO and revenue controls)
- Fund debt service.
Needless to say, making priorities and sticking to them isn’t easy. It’s “crawling inside the budget” (Senator Ellis’ word picture) and finding programs that will just have to be suspended for a time. For example, the state not funding 4-year old kindergarten, says Ellis, will save $104M.
According to Senator Ellis, the Governor’s budget depletes buying power, extracts venture and private capital from the economy, and raises our taxes, making Wisconsin increasingly less competitive as a place to live and do business.
Ellis: “The number one job of government is to make Wisconsin competitive so as to improve the lives of our people.” Thank you Senator Ellis, for being a voice of reason on this deeply flawed budget proposal.
COMMENTS
What a concept. However, it requires elected officials, including Senator Ellis and ex-Council Member Egelhoff to look their constituents and campaign contributors in the eye and say "NO". I have watched dozens of elected officials campaign on the premise that they wish to cut taxes. Once elected, every initiative they propose is to increase spending because one or more of their constituent groups shows up at a meeting. The elected oficials do not have the stomach to just say "NO".
Editor's Note: I agree with you Jeff. Saying "NO" is not an easy road; certainly some elected officials find it harder than others to follow up on campaign pledges. I will, however, dig up if you like, many many efforts on my part to say "NO" as an alderperson. I'd also point out that I, almost singlehandedly, initiated and fought our own Mayor and City Attorney, the local paper and the local Chamber to pass the state's only ordinance that limits the growth of a municipality's revenues. Appleton's Tax Levy Ordinance passed by referendum in 1996 by almost a 2:1 margin. JE
Jeff Brandt (Fri Mar 09 07:51:38 2007)
The editor uses the terms "deliberate deceit" and "maddening." Kinda sounds like the majority of Americans on George Bush's Iraq War. "Shoot… are we ALL stupid?"
Editor's Note: Dave, I interpret your remarks as encouraging us all to take active roles in our governments, to constantly question, the status quo. Can we agree on that much? JE
Dave Muench (Mon Mar 12 21:25:29 2007)
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