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6/28/2007
The Recycling [Slush] Fund - the rest of the story
$31,000,000. That’s the millions of dollars the Senate-passed budget bill would transfer from monies ostensibly raised for the Recycling Fund in this new biennial budget – but instead is transferred to the General Fund.
The use of these special Segregated Funds by state budgeters has increased astronomically with the 2007-09 budget. Take a look at this brief Fiscal Bureau memo. Depending on which budget version you look at (Governor’s, Joint Finance, or the Senate version, with and without “Healthy Wisconsin”), total revenues increased 8.3 to 9% (well, make that 23.2% if “Healthy Wisconsin” passes). But if you look at General Fund revenues alone (General Purpose Revenue - GPR), the increase is in the 3.1 to 3.7% range.
Then look at page 2 of the memo. The Senate version of the budget, without “Healthy Wisconsin,” raises GPR $97.6M. That’s bad enough as it is. Then notice revenues from segregated funds – like the Recycling Fund – this budget increases those revenues by $1.7 billion! Telling, isn’t it?
I talked earlier this week about the history of the Recycling Fund, how it’s been used as a Slush Fund for the General Fund and other varied projects all its life, and how the Senate Democrats want to more than triple state recycling fees and triple the Fund’s revenue. Making all the more Slush.
As it is now, your community (or your waste hauler) pays a $3/ton “state tipping fee” on top of the actual charge from the landfill (which averages $34 in Wisconsin). Those charges, plus an assessment on all business entities in the state, build up a nice little [slush] fund. The fund pays for grants and loans to communities to subsidize their recycling programs. And the [slush] fund pays for some conservation activities. And the [slush] fund transfers big money to the General Fund to be spent however the governor and legislature decide.
In his budget, the governor would double the “tipping fee” to $6. Not to be outdone, Senate Democrats want to increase the fee to $10!
So, from 1990 through 2007, the Recycling Fund handed over $81 million to fund stuff other than recycling activities.
The Governor’s 2007-09 Budget adds a record $31,000,000 to that $81M total of monies transferred from the Recycling [Slush] Fund to the General Fund!
Then, the Senate Democrats, meeting in a whirlwind last Friday, in a fit of honesty (and mostly P.R. 101) changed the fund’s name to the Recycling and Renewable Energy Fund. They increased the “state tipping fee” to $10 (mentioned above), increased dollars spent on Renewable Energy grants (gets positive karma these days), sent more money back to municipalities (more P.R. 101 – they’re calling this “property tax relief” – why increase the tipping fee in the first place if you’re just going to send the money back to where it came from?), and spent the fund down to a bare-bones balance.
Then the Senate sent this mess to the Assembly. Geeez.
COMMENTS
"Oh my Toto what shall we do now?" For starters, support SB 34 which will mandate the use of GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Priciples) for the Wisconsin budgeting process. Pull it up and read it. And if it wasn't enough the Democrats added to Diamond Jim's flim flam plan. It's that or we're off to Kansas, Dorothy.
Hear, hear. GAAP is a huge key to Wisconsin's budget dilemma. No more smoke and mirrors accounting. JE
Richard (Thu Jun 28 11:23:27 2007)
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