Suder: Some Building Projects May Be Too Costly For Budget
UW System schools are some of the big winners in Gov. Jim Doyle's capital budget. Last week, the Doyle-run Building Commission approved a $1.2 billion capital budget for 2007-2009, including $460 million in general fund supported borrowing.
Two years ago, the Building Commission approved a $1 billion capital budget with borrowing of $430 million. The Joint Finance Committee later cut the borrowing down to $400 million.
GOP members of the commission balked at the amount of borrowing in the budget, perhaps signaling problems in the Republican-run Assembly.
Gov. Jim Doyle addressed Republican criticism after the meeting, saying overall the level of borrowing in the budget is down, particularly in transportation due to the completion of the Marquette Interchange project, which according to the DOT will wrap up in 2008.
"We're right in the range of where you should be," Doyle told reporters. "The consequences of doing some of the things that were talked about today like just drastically cutting maintenance ... talk about pushing it off on future generations."
The capital budget now moves to the Joint Finance Committee, where it will likely face more criticism about borrowing levels, and will be rolled into the full budget bill upon approval from the Legislature.
Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, a member of the JFC, said there are concerns over bonding and borrowing levels, and suggested some projects could be eliminated in committee.
"There are a number of important projects in the capital budget, however," he said. "What I think we're going to look at on the Joint Finance Committee is the ability to pay for those projects. It's a very aggressive capital budget, but there may be some projects we just are unable to afford."
Initial GPR debt service to revenues estimates put the load at 4.14 percent for fiscal year 2008, but Building Commission Secretary Rob Cramer provided a revised debt ratio schedule at the meeting that seemed to quiet the criticism for now. According to the revised estimates, the debt ratio will increase from 3.78 percent this fiscal year to 3.92 percent in FY08 and 3.93 percent in FY09, before falling back to 3.91 percent in FY10 and 3.85 percent in FY11.
See the memo:http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/070319DebtRatio.pdf
Adjusted for inflation, all fund spending on the state building program has dropped 4.5 percent over the last two budgets, according to figures supplied by the Department of Administration. The DOA figures also show a 5 percent decline in general funds supported borrowing over the last two bienniums when the dollars are adjusted for inflation.
See charts on the capital budget spending trend:http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/070323PurchasingPower.pdf
Click here to see the complete capital budget.
Labels: Capital_Budget, Doyle, Suder
