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7/23/2009
How to buy a crucial vote for the state budget
You think the budget passed because it was wise policy? Senator Vinehout (D-Alma) explains how her budget vote was purchased, after publicly, “candidly” deriding fellow Dem budget leaders.
“We don’t have the money to do school funding reform,” goes conventional wisdom around the Capitol. It costs money to fix the funding formula and money is in very short supply.
Given the state’s fiscal condition, many considered any reform of school funding impossible. But in my western Wisconsin Senate District schools simply can’t wait.
…. To help diminish the impact of the deepening budget crisis on small rural schools struggling to survive, I successfully argued for increasing Sparsity Aid. In the second year of the budget, Sparsity Aid will be fully funded at a total of $14.9 million. Almost one quarter of schools in the state will receive this aid – 10 schools in our Senate District will share about one and a half million dollars.
I also advocated for relief to schools with severe declining enrollment. And to buffer the impact on property taxes, I supported increased funding for the First Dollar Tax Credit, a program that puts state money into property tax relief for home owners, by $145 million. These provisions were also included in the final budget. Who won on this deal? Not me as a middle class Wisconsin taxpayer. Not my school district either.
James Wigderson, June 11: “We'll see if the independence of mind for which [Vinehout] is being praised translates into a rejection of the proposed state budget.” Wigderson, June 11.
Nope.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
Again, very well said Jo.
I note that PBS did not come up with the alternative school funding that she talked about in the debates.
Perhaps fiscal conservatives need to take a "chill pill" and sit down. Perhaps things (such as school funding) will work out and not result in raised taxes.
I wonder how much less taxes (sales, income etc) are being collected every month by the state due to layoffs etc?
David (Thu Jul 23 08:43:37 2009)
WHY should shcools with "severely declining enrollments" get "relief"? In the past, they were simply CLOSED, and all the country kids now are bused into town, sometimes a trip of an hour or more!
And why should the Dems whine about "declining enrollments" when after all, that's what one of their pet policies leads to? I refer, of course, to abortion-on-demand.
emily matthews (Fri Jul 24 11:15:59 2009)
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