Assembly Passes Own Budget Repair Bill

This was the alternative? 

Madison - Assembly Republicans passed a last-minute plan to plug a hole in the state budget late Wednesday that would reduce state spending by $250 million through mid-2009.

The bill, which passed 51-46 mostly along party lines, would also nearly empty the state’s rainy-day accounts and beef up an accounting trick by $125 million.

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The Republican plan would push $125 million in school aid payments into July 2009 - just after the fiscal year ends. That accounting gimmick pushes that part of the budget problem into future years.

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Republicans did not specify where the cuts to state government would come from, but many would likely come from reduced wage increases for state workers.

I find myself agreeing with the Democrats.  It delays spending, which is just to say that we’ll have to come up with the money in the next budget.  It calls for cuts, but doesn’t say from where.  Yes, it’s better than Doyle’s plan because it doesn’t go back to the taxpayers and demand more money, but it’s a very weak plan.  It cedes the point to Doyle and the Democrats that the use of accounting tricks is acceptable to fill the shortfall. 

And by not specifying from where the spending cuts should come, it tosses the Democrats a softball because they can claim that the GOP wants to cut anything from prisons to education to the state crime lab.  By not being specific, the Republicans are giving the Dems the opportunity to put it in the worst possible light. 

Furthermore, while Doyle presented a bill for debate with a press conference and some showmanship, the Assembly Republicans tossed this out in the middle of the night with no notice whatsoever.  They didn’t give anyone time to read it or rally support for it. 

This was a bad move by the Assembly Republicans.  It’s a repair bill that does not offer a distinct difference with the Dems’ version and it was crafted and offered in a way to allow for maximum political gain… for the Democrats.