Referendum Climate: "State Budget Keeps Getting Worse"

Wisconsin State Journal Editorial:

The house of cards known as the state budget is predictably collapsing.

A Dane County judge heard arguments this week on the legality of a $200 million raid state leaders made on a special fund that's supposed to cover large medical malpractice awards.

Doctors pay into the fund to hold down their insurance rates. So the Wisconsin Medical Society, which represents about 60 percent of doctors, sued the state last year after the governor and Legislature raiding the fund to patch a state budget hole.

The state raid was just the latest in a series of poor financial moves that voters should remember when voting for legislative candidates this fall.

Voters should favor those candidates willing to scrutinize spending and resist expensive new programs. The accounting tricks and money raids need to stop. And the longer Wisconsin waits to get its financial house in order, the harder and more painful it will be to fix.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at August 28, 2008 5:33 AM
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