IF YOU HAVEN'T MADE CALLS TO THE WISCONSIN DEM LEGISLATORS TO OPPOSE IN-STATE ILLEGAL ALIEN TUITION AND DRIVER'S LICENSES, TODAY, PLEASE DO SO... THEY NEED TO HEAR FROM THE ANGRY U.S. CITIZENS!!!

How the state budget plan would affect you

By JASON STEIN and MARK PITSCH
Wisconsin State Journal
THU., JUN 11, 2009 - 9:28 AM

If you smoke, if you send your children to public school or if you and your spouse together earn more than $300,000 a year, the $62.2 billion state budget to be taken up today by the Democratic-led Assembly will affect you.

To close a $6.6 billion budget shortfall, legislators propose to use billions in federal stimulus money, cut spending by $905 million and raise $2.11 billion in taxes over the next two years.

That could mean an additional 75 cents more per pack of cigarettes, layoffs at your local school, higher income taxes for the wealthy and possibly higher prices at the pump.

Democrats say they’re just trying to spread the pain around amid a terrible economic climate — but they’re mindful that Republicans will use whatever they do as ammunition in next year’s elections.

All that is making it hard to find the 50 votes Democrats need to pass the budget in the 99-member body. They spent much of this week behind closed doors hashing out controversial proposals affecting businesses and taxpayers.

Here are highlights:

YOUR POCKETBOOK

There are no general sales or income tax increases in the proposed budget. But rich people and many small-business owners would face higher income taxes while smokers and phone users will get tapped again. Cuts to schools and local government aid payments could also lead to higher local taxes, while a new Regional Transit Authority could levy an additional 0.5 percent sales tax in Dane County.

Oil companies and multi-state corporations are in line for tax increases, which could get passed along to consumers or affect jobs. New auto insurance requirements could lead to rate increases.

EDUCATION

School districts will be so pinched by cuts that experts say some smaller, rural districts may dissolve. Regardless, expect layoffs and program cuts in some schools. Next year, however, teachers will be in a stronger position to argue for higher pay and better benefits. And bright spots for UW-Madison include approval of several construction projects and a pot of money to keep top faculty.

STATE WORKERS

Layoffs and furloughs are in store for state workers, while pay raises will evaporate. But UW-Madison workers can unionize, and the domestic partners of state workers could get health insurance.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Immigrants

• Allows illegal immigrants to apply for state drivers licenses/cards that would let them drive legally but which cannot serve as identification.

• Allows illegal immigrants to qualify for in-state tuition at UW-System schools.
Taxes and fees

• Raises the cigarette tax by 75 cents per pack to $2.52, raising $310 million from smokers over two years.

• Raises the income tax by an additional percentage point to 7.75 percent on single taxpayers making $225,000 or more per year and married couples making $300,000 or more. That would cost those taxpayers $287 million more.

• Effectively raises the capital gains tax by increasing the share the state can tax, raising $170 million a year.

• Places a 75 cent per month fee on telephones, which costs users $103 million.

• Delays a state income-tax deduction for some employees of their health insurance premiums from taking full effect. That would prevent tax deductions of $74 million.

• Levies a tax on oil companies of $260 million.

• Increases or creates several complex taxes on corporations for a total of more than $180 million.

• Increases a tax on hospitals and adds a tax on outpatient surgery centers to raise $187.6 million in state taxes and draws down even more federal dollars to return to the health centers and help balance the budget.

Schools and local governments

• Cuts state payments to schools by nearly $300 million over two years.

• Tightens limits on how much more money schools can raise in property taxes and state aid, but state aid cuts could mean bigger property tax increases overall.

• Ends in July 2010 an effective cap of 3.8 percent on increases in teachers’ pay and benefits.

• Cuts state payments to local governments by $30 million.

University of Wisconsin System and UW-Madison

• Allows faculty and staff to unionize.

• Provides health insurance benefits to domestic partners of university and other state employees at a projected cost of up to $6.7 million annually.

• Provides $113 million for tuition grants for System students, reducing grants by about $300 per student this fall from Gov. Doyle’s proposal.

• Borrows $978 million for construction projects, including a new nursing school building at UW-Madison.
• Provides $15 million to retain talented faculty.

Health care and welfare

• Expands BadgerCare Plus eligibility to childless adults.

• Slows the rate at which Family Care is expanded.

• Cuts $11.8 million in tobacco control grants.

• Eliminates two-year time limits on welfare job categories.

Domestic partner registry

• Confers some rights and responsibilities upon registered gay couples in a program to be administered by counties.
Regional Transit Authority

• Allows Dane County to create an RTA that would operate a local transportation system and impose 0.5 percent sales tax.
State workers

• Requires 16 furlough days, at a savings of $192.2 million.

• Rescinds 2 percent pay raises scheduled for non-union employees in June, saving $144.8 million.
• Calls for up to 1,000 layoffs.

• Calls for up to 400 additional layoffs if union employees reject a proposal to give up a 2 percent pay raise.

Auto insurance

• Increases over three years the minimum coverage for injuries to one person in an accident to $100,000, and mandates coverage of $300,000 overall for all injured parties in a crash. It also requires $25,000 in property damage protection.

OTHER CONTROVERSIAL ITEMS

Debt payments

• Authorizes $3.3 billion in new borrowing for building projects, roads and other uses.

• Borrowing includes $138 million for certain projects, including:

• $47.3 million for a UW-Madison nursing building.

• $44.5 million for a UW-Eau Claire education building.

• $500,000 for the Aldo Leopold Nature Center climate change project.

• $500,000 for the Oskhosh Opera House.

Prisoners and sex offenders

• Gives Department of Corrections authority to release prisoners early.

• Gives DOC authority to lift real-time electronic monitoring tracking of some sex offenders.

• Eliminates probation for some misdemeanor offenders.

http://www.madison.com/wsj/topstories/454503