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6/10/2009
Ellis, Fitzgerald and Cowles on the $2B deficit
The state budget adopted by the Joint Committee on Finance will leave the state with the largest structural deficit since Governor Doyle took office, state Senators Michael Ellis, Scott Fitzgerald and Rob Cowles warned today. According to a report issued by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the committee’s budget leaves a structural deficit of $2.25 billion – almost $700 million higher than the budget originally proposed by the governor.
“We’re digging ourselves deeper and deeper into debt,” they said. “We’re moving exactly in the wrong direction.
“What’s even more shocking is that we have this huge structural deficit after raising taxes and fees by more than $4 billion over the next two years and after a massive infusion of federal stimulus dollars,” said the senators.
A budget repair bill approved earlier this year raised $1.2 billion in new taxes and fees, the senators noted. The governor’s budget added another $1.7 billion in new taxes and fees, and the Joint Committee on Finance added another $400 million for a grand total of $3.3 billion in higher state taxes and fees. In addition property taxes are estimated to increase by $1.1 statewide over the next two years as a result of policies in the proposed budget.
In addition to the massive tax increases in this budget, one-time federal stimulus dollars are also being used to prop up state government spending through school aids and other state programs.
“It’s an incredible mismanagement of federal stimulus dollars, which were supposed to be used to save and create jobs,” the senators charged. “The governor and the finance committee squandered a golden opportunity to use those federal dollars to create real jobs. Rather than use federal stimulus funds to help displaced workers like those affected by the closing of the New Page paper mill in Kimberly and similar situations all over the state. The only thing that got stimulated was state government”
The three Republican senators also noted that the future deficit is almost certain to grow because the current budget is based on revenue projections that predict an increase in revenues of 4.5 percent in 2010-11.
“Unfortunately, we see no indication today that those optimistic projections will actually materialize.”
Mike Ellis, Rob Cowles and Scott Fitzgerald are all Republicans, representing residents in, respectively the 19th, 2nd, and 13th Senate Districts.
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| 2009 |
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• The Lawton-Bader files
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• TODAY - hearing on Campaign Finance Reform
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• Important votes Tuesday, including Appleton Common Council
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• Mark Rahmlow: "We're Broke."
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• Lots of ideas. No money.
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• AASD Retirement Costs Burdensome
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