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Wisconsin State Budget Collapsing

The bill is coming due.

Gov. Jim Doyle said Thursday the budget deficit has exploded to up to $6.5 billion - a historic gap he wants to fix by laying off hundreds, furloughing all state workers for 16 days, rescinding 2% pay raises for some workers and deeper cuts in aid to schools and local governments.

Doyle said the $5 billion deficit he and lawmakers faced in March has ballooned to $6.5 billion, largely because of collapsing tax collections. The gap occurs over three years that end on June 30, 2011.

Doyle and other government types may consider these measures drastic, but they are nothing compared to what some businesses are doing.

• All state employees will be required to take 16 days of unpaid leave in the next two years, which should save the state about $120 million a year. Schmiedicke said the governor has the legal authority to order the furloughs.

• The nearly 10,000 non-union state workers, including University of Wisconsin faculty and academic staff, will not receive a scheduled 2% pay increase in early June, a move expected to save about $30 million a year.

• The state will ask union members to reopen contract negotiations to achieve a similar 2% in payroll savings, or about $36 million a year. If the union doesn’t negotiate the pay cut, the state would need to lay off about 400 workers over the next two years.

• Doyle’s earlier budget called for 1% budget cuts across state government, but Schmiedicke said there will now be deeper cuts - as much as 5% - at some state agencies. He declined to say which agencies or services might be affected.

Good thing Doyle’s budget has nearly a 10% spending increase, right?

Posted by Owen at 2103 hrs
Economy + Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

1. With these items mentioned, how much will that reduce the deficit?  Getting the 10% increase out isn’t going to reduce it quickly either.

   

   Posted by hsgbdmama on May 07, 2009 at 2145 hrs
   
   
   

2. Looks like a little “sharing of the love” for our friends in government employ (didn’t it used to be called “government service”?).  Government employees are largely unscathed in all this. Time for them to enjoy this recession, too.

   Posted by Steve on May 08, 2009 at 0420 hrs
   
   
   

3. Looks like a little “sharing of the love” for our friends in government employ (didn’t it used to be called “government service”?).  Government employees are largely unscathed in all this. Time for them to enjoy this recession, too.

   Yeah, time they shared the pain.  I mean what have they had to suffer?  I mean other than the combined 6,600 jobs either eliminated or left vacant over the last 6 years.  It’s time they saw real pain, like furloughs, pay cuts and layoffs to the tune of 400 to 700.

   So now we’ve gone from advocating that people pay more of or lose benefits, to taking glee in them losing pay and their jobs.  Gotta love the modern day “conservative.”

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 08, 2009 at 0855 hrs
   
   
   

4. All state employees will be required to take 16 days of unpaid leave in the next two years

   I wonder if Diamond Jim will be taking 16 days of unpaid leave as well.  The state could certainly stand for 16 days of him not being there working to destroy the state.

   The days wouldn’t be unpaid, though.  He would use them to go collect bribes in the form of campaign contributions.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 08, 2009 at 1211 hrs
   
   
   

5. Lefty, I do believe the glee is not in that they will be losing their jobs but in sharing the pain. We the taxpayer had been shouldering the pain from this for quite some time only to have the govt come in and say they need more and can’t cut. My company on it’s 3rd staff cut in 3 years is letting 12,000 people go. We have about as many employees as the state of WI. 12,000 folks who are out of a job. Now one of the reasons why they are out of a job is because of the market, another is because of the economy and another is because of the Govt. It is a sort of black humor to see a group that has actually caused some of your pain get taken to task. The govt is just like those that worked at the auto plants. they have ramped up for so long in pay and bennies that unless they were completely out of touch, and I know plenty of govt workers that are, they should have known a correction would have to be forced eventually.

   I feel for the folks that will lose their jobs and I can relate because I, as well as each other non govt employee in my family has experienced a layoff in the last couple years. What I can’t understand is this horror at having to cut staff.

   On another note what I find disturbing is that they are going to say that services and products are going to suffer because of this. We in the private side say that is not the case. If you cut staff and your product suffers then you eventually cut staff totally because you will have to go out of business. Unfortunately, the govt has no comprehension of that concept and so rather than working harder with less they will just work less cause the customer has nowhere else to go.

   Posted by fishaddict on May 08, 2009 at 1355 hrs
   
   
   

6. Further proof that in Democrat/Liberal Land, a reduction in the amount of an increase is a “cut”.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 08, 2009 at 1408 hrs
   
   
   

7. It is a sort of black humor to see a group that has actually caused some of your pain get taken to task.

   What pain was it that the Gov’t inflicted on the private sector in Wisconsin?  Was it having one of the lowest corporate tax collections in the country?  Was it filling our tax code with so many business exemptions that 2/3 of corporations in Wisconsin didn’t pay income tax in 2005?  Was it the highly educated work force produced by our top ranking schools and university system?  Was it the strong and growing infrastructure across the state?

   Please tell me how f’d up Wisconsin is again.  Please.

   The govt is just like those that worked at the auto plants. they have ramped up for so long in pay and bennies that unless they were completely out of touch, and I know plenty of govt workers that are, they should have known a correction would have to be forced eventually.

   Please develop an understanding of what your tax dollars pay for.  Doyle is implementing furlough’s of 8 days a year, equaling over a 3% wage reduction, to save 100 million some odd dollars, over two years.  That equals about 0.15% of the entire budget.  How do you come to the conclusion that state employee wages and benefits have anything to do with creating the problem when it is clear reducing them, no matter how substantially, is the tiniest drop in the bucket towards solving it?

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 08, 2009 at 1513 hrs
   
   
   

8. Was it filling our tax code with so many business exemptions that 2/3 of corporations in Wisconsin didn’t pay income tax in 2005?

   If the taxes are so wonderful for businesses here, why are we losing so many?  (Note that 2005 was under Doyle’s watch.)  If 2/3 of the businesses aren’t paying taxes, wouldn’t the message be, “Wisconsin is a tax shelter haven for businesses!”

   It is a lot of ‘smaller’ items (and I use that term loosely) that add up to a lot of big things, such as over $100M on abandoned computer projects (http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/29386584.html), and the irresponsible raiding of funds in order to cover budget holes, which never addresses the problems that caused the holes in the first place.

   Doyle can blame Thompson/McCallum and Bush all he wants, but the fact of the matter is, this state has been under HIS watch for over SIX YEARS now, and he’s never ‘owned’ the budget, and he has simply run out of things to raid from, but yet he has all sorts of spending he would like to continue to do.

   Posted by hsgbdmama on May 08, 2009 at 1603 hrs
   
   
   

9. Wisconsin is a tax shelter haven for businesses!

   That’s the point

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 08, 2009 at 1807 hrs
   
   
   

10. I’ll let my wife know about all those tax shelters as she ponies up over 50% of her business earnings to the feds and state.

    No, Lefty.  I take no glee in someone else’s job loss.  My point here is that government tells us we should suck it up and all make sacrifices, then they don’t.  Maybe if the government sucked it up and made some sacrifices (and tough decisions) more in the private sector would have jobs.

    Seems the only ones who haven’t suffered in all this are the “takers”-those who get more than they pay in to the system.  Those who pay in more than they get keep getting asked to pay more.  Where does it end?  Government, both federal and state are bleeding us white.

    Posted by Steve on May 08, 2009 at 2138 hrs
    
    
    

11. Steve—I invite you to consider the difference between “the government” and the people who do the work of the state everyday.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 15, 2009 at 1938 hrs
    
    
    

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