Thread: Wisconsin state budget clears legislature

Wisconsin state budget clears legislature
The Associated Press • June 26, 2009

MADISON — Lawmakers have given final approval to the state budget.

The Assembly passed the $62 billion spending plan 51-46 Friday evening. The state Senate approved the measure 17-15 early Friday morning.

The budget plugs the state’s record $6.6 billion deficit through an array of higher taxes and cuts to state government.

The plan now goes to Gov. Jim Doyle, who can use his partial veto power to extensively rewrite the document. Doyle has been pressuring lawmakers to finish work on the plan so he can sign it into law before the new fiscal year begins Wednesday.

Earlier story: No comment from Doyle on Wisconsin state budget
MADISON — Gov. Jim Doyle remained silent today on a state budget deal that rejects his proposed new tax on oil companies and increases capital gains taxes more than he wanted.

The deal passed by the Senate around 12:30 a.m. plugs the state’s record $6.6 billion budget shortfall in part by lowering the capital gains exemption from 60 percent to 30 percent. Doyle had wanted it to be 40 percent.

Doyle spokesman Lee Sensenbrenner said the governor would not be available for interviews and did not plan to comment on the budget today.

Doyle may wait to make his feelings known through vetoes, which could come as early as Monday. He has been pressuring fellow Democrats who control the Legislature to pass a budget in time for him to sign it before the new fiscal year starts Wednesday.

The governor’s oil tax provision, first introduced in 2007, came with a prohibition on companies from passing the cost along to drivers. The Assembly had approved the tax but allowed the cost of gas to increase 4.4 cents a gallon.

Under the compromise budget deal approved 4-2 by a bipartisan conference committee Thursday, the oil tax was removed entirely. All four Democrats voted for the budget deal, with two Republicans voting against it.

The Senate passed the plan 17-15 with little debate. Sen. Jim Sullivan, D-Wauwatosa, joined 14 Republicans in voting no, while Sen. Alan Lasee, R-De Pere, was absent.

The Assembly was scheduled to vote on the deal later today. The plan cannot be changed in the Assembly since it was created by a conference committee.

Under the deal, a new driver’s card for illegal immigrants would not be created as the Assembly had wanted, but children of illegal immigrants could pay in-state tuition to attend Wisconsin colleges.

The budget also would mandate that Wisconsin drivers have liability insurance beginning in a year. New Hampshire is the only state other than Wisconsin that doesn’t already have the mandate.

Doyle supports the mandate as well as in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants.

Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, has pushed for the auto insurance mandate since 2001, but it’s been blocked by the insurance industry. Lehman said drivers, particularly those who have been hit by uninsured motorists, want it.

Andy Franken, director of the Wisconsin Insurance Alliance, said the mandate, along with new requirements in the budget that increase the required minimum levels of insurance, actually will result in fewer people being covered.

About 15 percent of Wisconsin drivers do not have insurance, according to the Insurance Research Council.

The state’s largest business lobbying group, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, also blasted the budget deal, which raises taxes and fees by $2.1 billion, including a new 75 cent tax on cigarettes and a monthly 75 cent tax on all phones. It also raises income taxes on households earning more than $300,000 a year.

“You can’t tax and spend your way out of a recession,â€

As many Wisconsin citizens and stake holders as possible need to call the Governors office to make sure that he knows you do not want in state tuition available to illegals.

Doyle will sign that budget with the in-state tuition in it. He wants it. People are really going to be pissed about this.

W