Budget passes Assembly with provisions on choice expansion, broadband funds
Madison - A private school voucher program won't expand to Green Bay and the state will not turn down nearly $40 million in federal money for expanding broadband access in rural areas, under the budget bill passed by the state Assembly early Thursday morning.
The bill passed 60-38 just after 3 a.m. on an essentially party-line vote, with the body's lone independent, Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer of Manitowoc, joining all Republicans in favor.
Under a GOP amendment to the bill, the budget also would preserve federal money for public transit, retain access to state officials' ethics statements and scale back a proposal to force local governments to use private contractors on road projects. The wide-ranging amendment also pulled several provisions into the state budget for the first time, including one to delay a provision prohibiting certain race-based mascots such as "Indians" in public schools.
Guarded by dozens of police and watched by protesters in the public galleries, Assembly lawmakers debated late into the night on Gov. Scott Walker's 2011-'13 budget plan, which balances a deep budget hole through cuts to schools and local governments and spending limits on health programs for the poor.
"We said it's time for government to go on a diet, and that's exactly what occurs in this budget," said Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, in a speech that was briefly interrupted by a protester's shouts.
The two-year, $66 billion budget would close a $3 billion shortfall without relying on tax increases, raise spending of state and federal money by $1.1 billion, or 1.8% over two years, and leave the state with an estimated $300 million surplus in its main account two years from now. It would cut state aid to schools by $800 million over two years and put tight limits on property taxes to help clear the way for sizable tax cuts for manufacturers, multistate corporations and investors.
The Senate is expected to take up the bill Thursday. It must also go to Walker for his signature and any partial vetoes.
Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) denounced the bill's "historic and drastic cuts" to priorities like education and a tax credit program for the working poor,offering along with his colleagues dozens of amendments that were tabled by Republicans. Other Democrats criticized the tax cuts, saying that they would ramp up in future years and undermine the budget surplus.
"It is painfully obvious to most Wisconsinites that this budget is an attack on middle-class families," Barca said.
Also Wednesday, Walker signed a bill to repay more than $200 million improperly taken from a medical malpractice fund. Under the measure the state would repay the money to the fund by June 30, 2012, along with an estimated $35 million in interest.
The state Supreme Court last year ordered the money repaid after finding that lawmakers and then Gov. Jim Doyle in 2007 illegally raided the fund, which is intended to compensate victims of medical malpractice and their families.
Four protesters were also arrested, according to Capitol Police.
In many cases, the changes in the Republicans' budget amendment were revisiting tweaks made to the bill by GOP lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee in recent weeks.
That included a Joint Finance proposal that would have brought the voucher program - now available only in Milwaukee - to Racine and Green Bay. The amendment takes Green Bay out of the budget bill but leaves Racine in place.
Jim Bender, a lobbyist for School Choice Wisconsin, said he was disappointed about the decision on the Green Bay voucher plan but stressed his group was pleased with other changes in the budget for school choice.
Some Democrats said they were concerned that Walker might use his partial veto powers - the most extensive in the nation - to extend the school choice proposal to other communities or even statewide. Bender dismissed that possibility.
"We are not asking the governor to veto it to go statewide," Bender said.
Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie had no comment, saying the governor and aides would examine the bill when it reaches his desk.
Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts (D-Middleton) said Walker could expand school vouchers statewide by striking out some of the limits on the expanded program in the bill.
"They could do it with a few deletions," she said.
Local governments can already allow employees to make those contributions on a pre-tax basis. Under the amendment, both state and local government employers will have to let their workers make those payments on a pre-tax basis, lowering the employees' income taxes and tax revenues for the state.
In all, the effect of those public workers' pre-tax payments would be a $95 million decrease in state income taxes over the next two years.
Also, the amendment would require local governments - including the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County - to make certain employer contributions to their pension systems. Those contributions would have to match the new pension contributions being required of public workers, which in the case of state workers are equal to 5.8% of their salaries.
No estimate was immediately available of the effect of this provision on local government budgets.
Right now, there is an Oct. 8 deadline for school districts that are ordered by the state Department of Public Instruction to change race-based team names, logos, mascots or nicknames because of citizen complaints. Under the budget amendment, those schools would have until Jan. 15, 2013.
The amendment also gave a boost to pharmacists, enabling them to provide vaccinations for children ages 6 and older. Currently, pharmacists cannot provide vaccinations for those younger than 18.
Under the GOP budget amendment, the state could keep the federal money and WiscNet will continue to run for at least two years in the same way it has in the past, Vos said. Any expansions to the network would have to be approved by the committee.
Telecommunications companies and the university system would likely present a plan for any expansions in July, Vos said.
The state could no longer be involved with WiscNet after July 1, 2013, unless the Joint Finance Committee approved a plan for the network before then. Vos said he expected all parties to reach consensus over the next two years on how to proceed.
Vos called the deal a compromise.
"No one is pleased, but everyone is satisfied," Vos said.
John Krogman, chief operating officer for the division of information technology at UW-Madison, said the amendment appeared to work.
"We believe there is enough flexibility in the language as written for WiscNet to continue to provide access and services to their current membership," Krogman said.
The Joint Finance Committee put a provision in the state budget that would have required people to pick up copies of the ethics statements at the Madison office of the Government Accountability Board, even if they lived far away.
Under current law, people can have the forms emailed to them after requesting them and paying for them. Vos said that will be kept in place under the GOP budget amendment, though that wasn't clear from a summary of the amendment.
Vos said the original change was meant to ensure that public officials like him who own small businesses wouldn't have all their customers disclosed to competitors. Instead, the amendment would raise the threshold of business customers who need to be disclosed by public officials from $1,000 a year in sales to $10,000.
The Joint Finance Committee earlier put a provision in the budget that would require counties and local governments to turn over to the private sector certain road projects that cost $100,000 or more.
Counties could continue to do all work on their own roads if they wanted. They could also perform work worth $100,000 or more for towns.
Counties could also bid on projects run by cities within their counties. If the counties make the lowest bid, they could do the work.
But the amendment would also cut $20 million over the next two years that would have gone to counties for roads.
To avoid running afoul of those rules, the amendment would exempt transit workers covered by the federal provisions from Walker's legislation ending most collective bargaining for public workers.
In addition, the amendment drops provisions added by the Joint Finance Committee that would have made it harder for owners of land sitting in the way of a highway or power line project to challenge a government takeover of their property.
The amendment also eliminates $2 million in state borrowing for a project at Milwaukee's National Soldiers Home. The proposal had been added to the budget by Joint Finance at the request of Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills).
GOP lawmakers worked behind closed doors Tuesday on a state budget deal, but failed to get one in time to start debate on the bill that night, pushing the action back to Wednesday.
The Legislature is meeting in "extraordinary session," which will allow the Assembly to immediately send the budget to the Senate once the Assembly votes on it. In regular session, Democrats could delay the bill before it gets to the Senate.
The bill passed 60-38 just after 3 a.m. on an essentially party-line vote, with the body's lone independent, Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer of Manitowoc, joining all Republicans in favor.
Under a GOP amendment to the bill, the budget also would preserve federal money for public transit, retain access to state officials' ethics statements and scale back a proposal to force local governments to use private contractors on road projects. The wide-ranging amendment also pulled several provisions into the state budget for the first time, including one to delay a provision prohibiting certain race-based mascots such as "Indians" in public schools.
Guarded by dozens of police and watched by protesters in the public galleries, Assembly lawmakers debated late into the night on Gov. Scott Walker's 2011-'13 budget plan, which balances a deep budget hole through cuts to schools and local governments and spending limits on health programs for the poor.
"We said it's time for government to go on a diet, and that's exactly what occurs in this budget," said Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, in a speech that was briefly interrupted by a protester's shouts.
The two-year, $66 billion budget would close a $3 billion shortfall without relying on tax increases, raise spending of state and federal money by $1.1 billion, or 1.8% over two years, and leave the state with an estimated $300 million surplus in its main account two years from now. It would cut state aid to schools by $800 million over two years and put tight limits on property taxes to help clear the way for sizable tax cuts for manufacturers, multistate corporations and investors.
The Senate is expected to take up the bill Thursday. It must also go to Walker for his signature and any partial vetoes.
Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) denounced the bill's "historic and drastic cuts" to priorities like education and a tax credit program for the working poor,offering along with his colleagues dozens of amendments that were tabled by Republicans. Other Democrats criticized the tax cuts, saying that they would ramp up in future years and undermine the budget surplus.
"It is painfully obvious to most Wisconsinites that this budget is an attack on middle-class families," Barca said.
Also Wednesday, Walker signed a bill to repay more than $200 million improperly taken from a medical malpractice fund. Under the measure the state would repay the money to the fund by June 30, 2012, along with an estimated $35 million in interest.
The state Supreme Court last year ordered the money repaid after finding that lawmakers and then Gov. Jim Doyle in 2007 illegally raided the fund, which is intended to compensate victims of medical malpractice and their families.
Four protesters were also arrested, according to Capitol Police.
In many cases, the changes in the Republicans' budget amendment were revisiting tweaks made to the bill by GOP lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee in recent weeks.
That included a Joint Finance proposal that would have brought the voucher program - now available only in Milwaukee - to Racine and Green Bay. The amendment takes Green Bay out of the budget bill but leaves Racine in place.
Jim Bender, a lobbyist for School Choice Wisconsin, said he was disappointed about the decision on the Green Bay voucher plan but stressed his group was pleased with other changes in the budget for school choice.
Some Democrats said they were concerned that Walker might use his partial veto powers - the most extensive in the nation - to extend the school choice proposal to other communities or even statewide. Bender dismissed that possibility.
"We are not asking the governor to veto it to go statewide," Bender said.
Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie had no comment, saying the governor and aides would examine the bill when it reaches his desk.
Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts (D-Middleton) said Walker could expand school vouchers statewide by striking out some of the limits on the expanded program in the bill.
"They could do it with a few deletions," she said.
Pre-tax benefits payments
In the coming months, state and local employees will have to start paying more for their pension and health benefits under legislation adopted by GOP lawmakers and Walker in March and upheld by the Supreme Court Tuesday.Local governments can already allow employees to make those contributions on a pre-tax basis. Under the amendment, both state and local government employers will have to let their workers make those payments on a pre-tax basis, lowering the employees' income taxes and tax revenues for the state.
In all, the effect of those public workers' pre-tax payments would be a $95 million decrease in state income taxes over the next two years.
Also, the amendment would require local governments - including the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County - to make certain employer contributions to their pension systems. Those contributions would have to match the new pension contributions being required of public workers, which in the case of state workers are equal to 5.8% of their salaries.
No estimate was immediately available of the effect of this provision on local government budgets.
Race-based mascots, flu shots
The budget would give a delay of more than a year for specific schools such as Mukwonago High School before they have to change nicknames and logos that refer to American Indians.Right now, there is an Oct. 8 deadline for school districts that are ordered by the state Department of Public Instruction to change race-based team names, logos, mascots or nicknames because of citizen complaints. Under the budget amendment, those schools would have until Jan. 15, 2013.
The amendment also gave a boost to pharmacists, enabling them to provide vaccinations for children ages 6 and older. Currently, pharmacists cannot provide vaccinations for those younger than 18.
Rural broadband
Earlier this month the budget committee voted to impose restrictions on the WiscNet broadband network and to force the state to return a nearly $40 million federal grant to expand broadband access in rural Wisconsin. The moves sparked discontent from rural legislators and raised concerns from the University of Wisconsin System, as well as school districts and public libraries that rely on that network.Under the GOP budget amendment, the state could keep the federal money and WiscNet will continue to run for at least two years in the same way it has in the past, Vos said. Any expansions to the network would have to be approved by the committee.
Telecommunications companies and the university system would likely present a plan for any expansions in July, Vos said.
The state could no longer be involved with WiscNet after July 1, 2013, unless the Joint Finance Committee approved a plan for the network before then. Vos said he expected all parties to reach consensus over the next two years on how to proceed.
Vos called the deal a compromise.
"No one is pleased, but everyone is satisfied," Vos said.
John Krogman, chief operating officer for the division of information technology at UW-Madison, said the amendment appeared to work.
"We believe there is enough flexibility in the language as written for WiscNet to continue to provide access and services to their current membership," Krogman said.
Ethics statements
The public would still be able to have ethics statements from more than 2,000 public officials emailed to them under the GOP amendment, according to GOP lawmakers.The Joint Finance Committee put a provision in the state budget that would have required people to pick up copies of the ethics statements at the Madison office of the Government Accountability Board, even if they lived far away.
Under current law, people can have the forms emailed to them after requesting them and paying for them. Vos said that will be kept in place under the GOP budget amendment, though that wasn't clear from a summary of the amendment.
Vos said the original change was meant to ensure that public officials like him who own small businesses wouldn't have all their customers disclosed to competitors. Instead, the amendment would raise the threshold of business customers who need to be disclosed by public officials from $1,000 a year in sales to $10,000.
County highway crews
The amendment would allow counties to continue to use their own crews to work on their roads.The Joint Finance Committee earlier put a provision in the budget that would require counties and local governments to turn over to the private sector certain road projects that cost $100,000 or more.
Counties could continue to do all work on their own roads if they wanted. They could also perform work worth $100,000 or more for towns.
Counties could also bid on projects run by cities within their counties. If the counties make the lowest bid, they could do the work.
But the amendment would also cut $20 million over the next two years that would have gone to counties for roads.
Transit aid
Republicans said they would make changes to ensure that $47 million in federal aid for local transit systems won't be lost. Federal rules prohibit local governments receiving the aid from rolling back any collective bargaining authority from union transit workers.To avoid running afoul of those rules, the amendment would exempt transit workers covered by the federal provisions from Walker's legislation ending most collective bargaining for public workers.
In addition, the amendment drops provisions added by the Joint Finance Committee that would have made it harder for owners of land sitting in the way of a highway or power line project to challenge a government takeover of their property.
The amendment also eliminates $2 million in state borrowing for a project at Milwaukee's National Soldiers Home. The proposal had been added to the budget by Joint Finance at the request of Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills).
GOP lawmakers worked behind closed doors Tuesday on a state budget deal, but failed to get one in time to start debate on the bill that night, pushing the action back to Wednesday.
The Legislature is meeting in "extraordinary session," which will allow the Assembly to immediately send the budget to the Senate once the Assembly votes on it. In regular session, Democrats could delay the bill before it gets to the Senate.
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