School Spending Climate: State & Federal Deficits

Greg Bump:

He said all agencies are going to have to tighten their belts.

"The new increase is a flat line," he said.

Doyle said one of his priorities will be to protect K-12 education and the university system from major cuts, but said the state "may have to save some money on school aids" and the UW System is "definitely going to have to participate in this."

"The bottom line of this," Doyle said, "is I'm willing to make very deep cuts."

Doyle added, "But I don't want to see schools go into total crisis mode."

Jason Stein:

Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, co-chairman of the Legislature's budget committee, said he would not rule out a general income or sales tax increase but would see it as a "last resort."

"I think the priority needs to stay on job creation," Miller said of the budget. He said new jobs would help the state begin to climb out of its budget hole.

Todd Berry, president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, said he would want to know more about how the budget shortfall was calculated, including more about the size of agencies' requested spending increases, before he could truly say how serious it was. That's because governors have an incentive to play up the size of the budget shortfall to emphasize the challenge they face, he said.

Randall Forsyth:

WHAT ONCE WAS UNTHINKABLE has come to pass this year: massive bailouts by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, with the extension of billions of the taxpayers' and the central bank's credit in so many new and untested schemes that you can't tell your acronyms or abbreviations without a scorecard.

Even more unbelievable is that some of the recipients of staggering sums are coming back for a second round. Or that the queue of petitioners grows by the day.

But what happens if the requests begin to strain the credit line of the world's most creditworthy borrower, the U.S. government itself? Unthinkable?

Patrick Marley:

The $5 billion shortfall includes up to $500 million in the current budget, which runs through June 30. Doyle stressed that the deficit may continue to balloon as the scope of the national economic crisis becomes clear. Less than a month ago, Doyle estimated the deficit at more than $3 billion.

Sen. Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) said the deficit was mostly caused by matters out of the control of lawmakers, but that it was significantly worsened by bad budgeting practices in the past.

"This is a monster problem," he said.

Projections change

When lawmakers approved a budget-repair bill in May, state officials believed revenue would increase by a modest 1.5% through next June. Now, they say, revenue will instead drop 2.5% because declining jobs and fewer sales translate into lower tax collections.

Revenue will drop further in the first year of the next budget, Doyle said.

Doyle said his No. 1 priority is funding education. He said he also wants to protect state health care programs, as well as key economic development programs that fund biotechnology and renewable energy programs.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at November 11, 2008 11:03 PM
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