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10/9/2007
Lazy, selfish legislators
“…the state budget remains a hostage to lazy, selfish legislators.” Yeah, an Appleton Post-Crescent October 7 editorial really said that – and in the very first sentence. Seems to be a bit sophomoric and uninformed.
Also uninformed and naïve is the statement that legislators, “holding different points of view, [must be] willing to put in the work necessary to come out with a budget that’s best for the state of Wisconsin…”
The question is “What’s best for the state of Wisconsin.”
A $2.2 billion deficit? Taxes in the very top tier of the 50 states? A credit rating that’s one of two at the very bottom of all 50 states? A credit rating which is costing the state millions of extra dollars in interest charges because it’s so poor?
And the Post-Crescent – and legislators as well, are dabbling around, calling on pay to be withheld and legislators to be arrested.
And here we are, still running our budget exactly like we did in 1848 when Wisconsin entered the union.
Wisconsin is one of only a small handful of states who still cook their books – using an arachaic system that spends more than revenue allows. Some expenditures are simply booked in a future year so the governor and the legislature can claim to have balanced the budget. That balancing business is all poppycock. It’s time Wisconsin came into the 21st century and adopted modern Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) like most everywhere else in the world.
GAAP accounting in Wisconsin would show up not a balanced budget – but a budget that will contribute to a deficit the state controller now puts at about $2.2 billion.
Legislators – and the governor – simply must commit to no more slight of hand with the state budget – and no more deficits. This state has got to get it’s spending under control – and Mike Huebsch and team are working very hard to do just that. It’s time to stop whining about legislators going without pay and being hauled away in chains. Pass a bill requiring GAAP accounting. Really balance the budget. I dare you.
COMMENTS
Let's start a list of things that we would cut if we were legislators who were going to take up the dare. Let's start with: support to local municipalities, K-12 education, the UW, prisons, roads (transportation), assistance to the elderly. After we get done with the list, then we should identify the dollar amount that we are going to cut and then, what services will be lost and how it will affect the state in the long run.
For example, what impact would cutting the transportation budget have? Most would say we'd have rougher, less safe roads, but the economists would point out thgat this infrastructure is necessary for economic development. New businesses are not going to locate in a place without a first-rate transportation system. (Witness Gary Sherman's desire to have US 2 a four lane highway because all major businesses are located close to such. Faulty logic, but ...) And then what about all those jobs that we have laying down concrete and other transportation-related jobs? This exercise makes it obvious why people campaign on simplistic solutions to extremely complex problems, and when they get elected, they become just as much part of the "problem."
I would be the first to agree that there should be some outcome-based system in place that holds legislators accountable for getting the job done that they are there to do. It is really quite unimaginable that we still don't have a state budget. I don't think they're lazy at all, based upon my first-hand experience with them, but they do line up with lines drawn in the sand that results in gridlock from the word go.
I'm on the record (late in May of this year) proposing areas to trim spending. Also, areas in which Wisconsin spends more than average spending in the other 49 states include K-12 benefit costs, transportation and college campus capital costs. K-12 benefits costs is self-explanatory I think - as is transportation. I get some push back here, folks saying it costs less to maintain in timely fashion than to have to rebuild earlier. And campus costs. (You're not the guy to be saying this to - I know it must be blasphemy!) Wisconsin's low resident tuition and system size are major reasons for the state’s above-average taxes. See p. 13 and pp. 24-27 of "Why Wisconsin Taxes are High" JE
Jim Perry (Tue Oct 09 07:06:27 2007)
Jo, I still read your stuff and enjoy it a great deal. This one really hit home. The P-C has been beating the drum, running essentially the same article every day -- how terrible it will be if we can't "put partisanship aside" and come together -- instead of asking the tougher question, "What should the budget contain?" As I told Steve Wieckert recently, no budget is much better than a bad budget. I had considered writing a Letter to the Editor, but decided I would hold off, as long as I remain a K-C employee. However, you should do it! BTW, my wife told me that the P-C is looking for guest columnists. They sure could use your voice on their editorial page.
Best,
Thanks for your kind - and rational! - words. Perhaps a response to the P/C could also contain a response to Dr. Perry, above. JE
Fred Shaffer (Tue Oct 09 09:11:40 2007)
Right on point. After speaking with Legislators who support the GAAP accounting, it would be disasterous to switch from the current veiled accounting methods without a transitional period. In more succinct terms, the State would go down in fiscal flames if immediately enacted. Sweet huh?
Speaking to the Budget, let them eat cake until a fiscally responsible budget that does not further burden taxpayers can be agreed upon.
Yes, GAAP accounting would need be phased in over say, ten years, to bring the deficit down gradually. We've gotten ourselves into a real mess - that can't be easily dug out of. JE
Richard Taxpayer (Tue Oct 09 12:46:04 2007)
Are our elected representatives really analyzing the budget document and geting down to business of cutting costs and stopping this political nonsense?
The ones who will be hurt are the taxpayers, because municipalities cannot set their budgets and establish a tax levy. Common sense, evidently very scarce, should prevail.
(Tue Oct 09 18:57:44 2007)
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