State budget director Dave Schmiedicke said a partial veto that violated the constitutional ban on using two or more sentences to create one sentence was a mistake.

For now, the governor's language will be law, at least until the veto is challenged, Schmiedicke said. But he said the administration will work with the Legislature to rectify the issue.

"The governor's intent could have been accomplished with a correct veto," he said. "It was a mistake and we'll be working with the Legislature to correct the error."

-- By Greg Bump

A request from the Doyle Administration to spend $35,000 more on a study of a proposed commuter rail line between Milwaukee and Kenosha was derailed by Milwaukee Democrats angry about Doyle's veto of the Milwaukee RTA.

A motion to kill the request passed on a 10-6 vote. Voting against the request were Dem Reps. Pocan, Colon, Grigsby and Sherman, Dem Sens. Taylor and Robson, and four GOP members.

Rep. Grigsby said the Doyle's veto of the half-cent sale tax increase for Milwaukee County eliminated any chance to improve Milwaukee's existing transit system, a requirement for federal approval of a regional transit authority.

"Any opportunity to make that a viable application was annihilated yesterday," she said, and urged fellow JFC members to vote against the request.

Rep. Colon joined her protest, saying that a proposal was carefully crafted by the committee during the budget process, and that agreement was not respected by the governor.

"I feel like all the efforts of this committee have been a complete waste," he said.

State budget director Dave Schmiedicke said the half-cent sales tax would actually have been a detriment to the federal application for an RTA because it was only targeted to Milwaukee County. He said the governor looks forward to more discussions on the issue, but he believes the approach needs to be more regional to garner federal approval.

Rep. Mason said he was also disappointed in the veto, but doesn't think not approving the request will do anything to move the process forward.

-- By Greg Bump

The JFC has approved a half dozen requests from state agencies to utlitize dollars available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Among the requests approved is $79.6 million for 96 local road projects and $11.6 million for 17 transportation enhancement projects across the state. See details here.

-- By Greg Bump

Gov. Doyle's veto pen may have brought back to life the so-called Frankenstein veto, though the resurrection may have been inadvertent.

LFB director Bob Lang said in the agencies initial review of the Doyle's vetoes, a partial veto of a provision on a study of intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded struck parts of three sentences to create a new one. That use of the veto would appear to be contrary to the April 2008 state constitutional amendment, Lang said.

Lang said that the violation was likely inadvertent. (The memo on the veto can be viewed here.)

As passed by the Assembly and Senate, the provision required the DHS Secretary to appoint a committee to study the need for and preservation of the care facilities. The legislature's version required the study be submitted to the JFC by Dec. 1.

Doyle's partial veto narrowed the scope of the study, eliminated the committee, and deletes the Dec. 1 reporting date.

Lang advised the JFC that a legal opinion should be sought, but said a override was not the best route.

He said the apparent violation of the constitutional amendment would "render the veto inoperable" and that the budget would revert to the language in the document approved by the Legislature.

-- By Greg Bump

LFB director Bob Lang gave the committee a quick overview of the veto process. For this budget bill, the vetoes would be taken up first in the Assembly, which is the house of origin for the bill.

An two-thirds majority of those present is required to override a veto, Lang said. In the Assembly, assuming all members are present, it would require 66 votes.

A veto override can only move to the other house if it passes the house of origin.

Rep. Vos asks co-chair Rep. Pocan if veto overrides are being considered or if "this is just kind of an exercise in something that's not going to happen."

Pocan says he's not aware of any vetoes being discussed. A spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan said yesterday that no overrides are expected.

Pocan did ask, by way of example, how an override would be handled for an item like a position being eliminated through a veto. (Note: Lt. Gov. Lawton had a position that was approved by the JFC and Legislature vetoed out of the budget by Doyle.)

Lang said that an override would have to include a package to restore the position and the funding.

-- By Greg Bump

For a 13.10 meeting. Should be starting in a few minutes.

Here's a link to the 13.10 page.

-- By Greg Bump

See the enrolled bill including strke-thru language here.

-- By Greg Bump

Gov. Jim Doyle today signed a $61 billion state budget after using his veto pen to nix a handful of earmarks, eliminate a proposed Milwaukee Transit Authority and ratchet down the state's film tax credit program. (Text of Doyle's budget signing speech can be viewed here.)

Doyle praised his fellow Dems, who control both houses of the Legislature, for getting him the budget on time, saying this is the first time in 32 years the budget has been enacted before the current budget expires. The new fiscal year starts Wednesday.

Doyle said the budget includes $3 billion in cuts to state agencies that the governor called the largest in state history. Doyle said the cuts were difficult for him and legislators, "particularly during a time when people need the services the most."

"(The cuts) are painful. They frustrate me personally because we have been forced into this by national and international economic forces that were beyond the control of the people of Wisconsin," he said.

But Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said he was disappointed Doyle didn't go farther in rewriting the budget, saying too much pork, spending and higher taxes remained.

"I'd much rather be sitting at the conference committee table until August if it means we could whittle out some of the $5 billion in new taxes," Fitzgerald said, referring to the tax hikes contained in the budget and stimulus legislation Dems pushed through earlier this year. "But one-party control is driving this secret budget process, and this was the conclusion of it today."

Doyle said the budget avoids doing "irreparable harm to our services and our people by making sure we make responsible cuts that take the path of least destruction."

He thanked the members of the Joint Finance Committee and legislative leadership and members of the Legislature who voted for the budget.

"They have been members who have shown courage in difficult times. They have stepped up and they have done the right thing for Wisconsin," he said.

Doyle signed the $61 billion two-year state spending plan at a windy ceremony today at the Executive Residence. About $28 billion of that spending comes from general tax revenue, according to state budget director Dave Schmiedicke.

Overall spending was reduced by about $2 billion from the budget Doyle originally proposed back in February.

The governor also imposed in his vetoes additional lapses of about $200 million to state agencies by the end of June 2011, bringing the state's statutory balance to about $270 million at the end of the next biennium.

"I have always believed the people of Wisconsin elected me to lead them through the good times and bad," Doyle said. "To make responsible choices and at the end of the day strengthen this great state. And that is what I have tried to do, especially in this time of economic uncertainty."

Money-saving provisions in the budget include mandating 16 unpaid furlough days for all state employees over the next two years, layoffs of about 1,000 state employees and rolling back a 2 percent pay increase for non-union state employees that was to be paid beginning this year. Doyle has said the number of layoffs will climb if unions refuse to agree to rolling back the pay raise.

Doyle answered critics who say that overall state spending is rising despite the economic crisis, noting that the increased funding is from federal stimulus money released through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Total spending in the biennium, including stimulus money, will be up about $3.6 billion over the $57.4 billion spent in 2007-09.

"Those who make this allegation apparently would have us refuse stimulus dollars as Republican leaders have been urging across the United States," Doyle said. "But I believe it is crucial for Wisconsin to get its fair share of that money and to invest it in ways that help us to build our economy."

Doyle said the critics have offered no ideas for how to meet state priorities while solving the record $6.6 billion deficit.

"It is easy at times like this to sit on the sidelines and criticize everything. But for those of us who are in this position and have to make the decisions, we have to make them," he said.

Doyle said the budget "holds the line on taxes," despite prognostications that it would have to include a broad sales tax increase or income tax surcharges.

"I am proud to say that that did not happen," Doyle said. "We have protected the middle class taxpayers of Wisconsin during this difficult time."

Doyle said he's pleased the bill does not include a gas tax increase, but he still believes "big oil companies" should have to pay for road infrastructure improvements as he originally proposed in his oil profits tax. The provision was eliminated through the legislative process and replaced by lowering the tax exemption for capital gains and other moves.

"I am going to continue to search for ways in which the big oil companies should have to contribute without passing it on to the taxpayers of Wisconsin," Doyle said.

Despite the tough economy, Doyle touted the budget for protecting education, health care and public safety and for the economic development tools it contains. He called them "the most significant enacted in this state in anybody's memory."

Joining Doyle at the ceremony on the lawn of the Executive Residence were his wife Jessica; state Democratic Sens. Mark Miller, the co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, and Fred Risser; Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan; Democratic state Reps. Kim Hixson, Bob Turner and Peter Barca; Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz; UW System President Kevin Reilly; UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin; and representatives from SEIU, AFSCME and police and fire across the state.

-- By Greg Bump

While fielding questions from reporters, Doyle was asked about going to Washington, D.C., after rumors floated last week yet again about a possible appointment.

Doyle stressed that he has never asked for a job in the Obama administration and has never been approached for a post.

"I fully expect to serve this term," Doyle said.

He was also asked if he had any fears about running for governor next year considering what's in this budget. He said he has a lot of work ahead of him.

-- By Greg Bump

Read the governor's veto message for the 2009-2011 state budget here.

UPDATE: Here are some of the vetoes Doyle outlined in his veto message:

- used vetoes to require another $200 million in lapses from state agencies, which the governor projected would increase the statutory balance to about $270 million.

- veto five earmarks: $50,000 annually for WiSys Technology Foundation Inc. for providing intellectural property management services to UW schools; $200,000 annually to conduct or contract marketing activities at the Milwaukee Public Museum; the designation of a route of U.S. 8 the "Donald J. Schneider Highway," up to $50,000 for the town of Beloit to build a playground in Preservation Park, and $25,000 in each year to renovate a domestic abuse shelter serving Langlade, Taylor, Vilas and Oneida counties.

- partial vetoes film tax credit to cut it to $500,000 annually compared to the $1.5 million a year approved by the Legislature. Other changes makes the credit more line up with Doyle's original proposal to focus it on Wisconsin-based companies.

- elimination of constituent services position created in lieutenant governor's office.

- partial veto to change in school funding formula to redistribute some state aid to soften the impact of the cut for some districts at the expense of others.

- veto limit on state aid that districts accepting Milwaukee Public School students through open enrollment receive.

- veto limits on the executive branch's use of private contractors. The governor also ordered a review of the use of contractors.

- vetoes a proposed $15 nonresident boat sticker, fearing it would hamper tourism.

- partially vetoes changes to regulation of chiropractors.

- partially vetoes changes to prevailing wage laws.

- partially vetoes provision to repeal the Department of Health Services' authority to prescribe fees in administrative rules to eliminate the deadlines and penalties for providing copies and access to records.

- vetoes mandating coverage of podiatry services through BadgerCare Plus.

- partially vetoes requirements on minimum auto insurance coverage to allow proposed 2010 increase to take effect while eliminating those for 2011 and 2012. Also deletes provision to prohibit insurers from determining premiums based on where a vehicle is located.

- vetoes sunset of police and fire protection fee of June 30, 2001.

- vetoes Milwaukee Transit Authority; vetoes language requiring specific stops along KRM, vetoes allowing transit authority funds in Dane County for highway projects and emergency services.


-- By JR Ross

Gov. Jim Doyle will sign the 2009-11 budget bill at 11 a.m. Monday at the Executive Residence in Maple Bluff.

The bill passed the Senate on Thursday and Assembly on Friday.

An advisory released by the governor's office this afternoon says Doyle's "Stronger Wisconsin" budget "builds upon the state's commitment to expand access to affordable health care coverage, invests in Wisconsin businesses that will create jobs and lead to future growth, and continues to protect priorities like education and police and fire protection, in the face of unprecedented national economic challenges."

Doyle's timeline for reviewing and and signing the bill, and his window to weigh veto decisions, was greatly reduced because a priority was put on finishing the process by the end of the fiscal year due to the state's $6.6 billion deficit. Waiting past Monday could jeopardize some federal revenue streams, such as about $60 million in Medicaid funding and $15 million for primary enforcement of seat belts.

-- By Greg Bump

The compromise budget hammered out by Dem legislative leaders would drop four earmarks added by the Senate or Assembly and tweak four others, according to a WisPolitics review of budget documents from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

But it leaves intact millions of dollars worth of earmarks both houses inserted into the document as well millions more added by the Joint Finance Committee, including controversial measures providing money for new recycling bins for Wrightstown and an opera house in Oshkosh.

The provisions removed by the conference committee from either the Senate or Assembly documents -- added after JFC -- include:

-- $3.75 million in SEG funding to cover the City of Oak Creek's share of constructing an interchange at I-94 and Drexel Avenue, which was included in the Senate budget.

-- $500,000 in GPR the Assembly proposed for school district consolidation grants. The proposal includes a requirement that the Department of Public Instruction award grants in certain circumstances specific to consolidation between Rusk and Barron counties.

-- $257,000 in GPR the Assembly added for a Racine County child care facility pilot program.

-- And a Senate provision requiring DOT to mark the US-41 bridge over I-94 in Milwaukee County as the Gulf War Veterans Bridge.

The four earmarks the conference committee altered include: increasing the GPR contribution to grants for Madison to start 4-year old kindergarten from $500,000 to $1.5 million; upping a supplemental payment to Trempealeau County -- which would reimburse the county for its payment of the nursing home bed assessment -- from $295,700 to $300,000; modifying the allowable "Class B" liquor licenses in a Senate provision classifying Oconomowoc as "capital improvement area"; and adjusting the Assembly provision allowing additional taxation by the Milwaukee Transit Authority.

According to preliminary numbers, that still leaves at least $16.4 million in state funding added by the chambers for local earmarks, including $10 million for construction at the Marquette University School of Engineering, $2 million for a grant to the Milwaukee Workforce Investment Board, and $700,000 for a grant to the Pleasant Prairie Technology Incubator Center.

See a list of location-specific projects remaining in the conference report:
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/090626_conference_committee_earmarks.pdf

See the memo on the JFC budget earmarks:
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/090626_JFC_earmarks.pdf

-- By Andy Szal

Dem Reps. Ziegelbauer and Krusick voted with 44 Republicans against the bill.

Independent Rep. Wood voted with the Dems.

Two Republicans, Reps. Strachota and Friske, are absent.

Roll call

-- By Greg Bump

Referring to rumors that have flared up again in the last day about Gov. Jim Doyle's future, Rep. Fitzgerald asked where the governor has been as this budget process wound down.

"Where is Gov. Doyle?" Fitzgerald asked. "Is he still in D.C. interviewing for that next position?"

The speculation has been that the governor may be in line for the position of director of the Peace Corps, and he may be announcing the appointment in the near future. Doyle staff and sources close to Doyle have vehemently denied that he is considering such an offer or that he intends to take any position in the Obama Administration.

Doyle has not, however, confirmed that he will run for a third term in 2010, saying for now he is focused on finishing the budget.

-- By Greg Bump

They are Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan.

Then the vote.

-- By Greg Bump

Not a lot of new rhetoric, although there have been some topical jabs and pop culture references.

Dem Rep. Nelson touted the proposal as a "fair share budget" delivered balanced and on time for the first 30-plus years. He said it protects shared values like education, health care and police and fire protection.

And Nelson bashed Republicans for being "no help at a time when our state needed it most."

GOP Rep. Vos called this a "wishful thinking" budget because it assumes that the economy will get better, that people will continue to blame President Bush for economic problems, and that people will believe that the budget is balanced although it contains an ongoing structural deficit of about $2 billion.

And he said the proposal is "a ticking time bomb of property tax increases" due to the QEO repeal.

Dem Rep. Pocan said Republicans are sore because they can't label Democrats as tax and spenders, so they complained about the process.

"'Dark of night. Behind closed doors. Behind closed doors. Dark of night,'" Pocan said. "Sounds like a tawdry romance novel.

"Given your party's history with Governor Sanford and Senator Ensign, maybe that hits too close to home for you," Pocan said to the Republicans.

Pocan calculated the impact of the budget to the median family at about $128.10 annually, including the phone fee increase, tipping fee increase, and property tax increases. He said the Dems were able to keep middle class families from bearing the brunt.

"I think people would have expected a lot more pain and in a lot of other states they are going to see a whole lot more pain," he said.

GOP Rep. Montgomery said the Dem budget is "big government at its worse."

"This is 'Little Shop of Horrors.' Feed me Seymour. Feed me," he said.

-- By Greg Bump

Dem Rep. Nelson and GOP Rep. Vos get the first licks.

Dem Rep. Pocan and GOP Rep. Montgomery are the next up.

And GOP Reps. Nygren and Suder take a turn.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly Dem Reps. Sheridan, Pocan and Hubler have distributed a memo to members touting the accomplishments of the budget.

Read it here.

-- By Greg Bump

Roll call done.

A link to the conference amendment is here. It's an up or down vote, no amendments can be offered.

Two GOP members are given leave, Rep. Don Friske and Rep. Pat Strachota.

Before they get to the conference amendment, they have some other bills and resolutions to move through.

-- By Greg Bump

-- By Greg Bump

The Wisconsin Alliance of Cities delivered a memo today to Gov. Jim Doyle requesting some specific veto action, or in some cases non-action.

Among the changes they are seeking is a veto of language to sunset the police and fire protection fee, and to keep the conference committee language on benevolent retirement homes and low income homes for the aged.

See the memo here.

-- By Greg Bump

They are out of caucus and have agreed to waive the 24-hour rule, so the session could start early though the time is still undetermined.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Dems and Republicans are continuing their caucuses. Dems are going through the comparative summary item-by-item. Republicans, who started an hour earlier, are said to be nearly through the document.

-- By Greg Bump

A spokesman for Speaker Mike Sheridan said this morning that Assembly Democrats have enough votes to pass the conference report today and move the budget bill on to Gov. Jim Doyle.

The Democrats will caucus today at 1 p.m., and Republicans will caucus at noon. Both caucuses will receive briefings on the contents of the conference report.

Due to the Assembly's 24-hour rule that requires the conference report to be available to members for a full day before it can come to the floor, the Assembly session is expected to start at about 8:30 p.m. But the Assembly rules could be waived by unanimous consent of the body if the lawmakers decide to take the bill up earlier.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly is expected to take up the bill tomorrow night, probably around 8:30 p.m. under the 24-hour rule.

The Senate adjourned until 10 a.m. Saturday, which was necessary in case the Assembly does not approve the bill.

Here is a link to the conference amendment in bill form.

-- By Greg Bump

Sen. Jim Sullivan, D-Wauwatosa, voted against the budget along with 14 Republicans.

Sen. Jauch and Sen. Taylor were not in the chamber at the time of the roll but strolled in after a few seconds to register their "yes" votes.

-- By Greg Bump

They're taking up the conference report first thing.

There are fewer than two dozen members present in the chamber.

Sen. Decker offers brief comments touting the proposal.

-- By Greg Bump

Senators from both sides are beginning to mill around the chamber. Sen. Risser is ringing the bell. Bill is being distributed.

-- By Greg Bump

Sen. Alan Lasee, R-De Pere, will not be at tonight's floor session, according to Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. He is attending to his wife, who took ill today.

Fitzgerald said all 14 of his members present tonight will be voting no on the budget.

-- By Greg Bump

The Senate Republicans have broken caucus, and the Senate Dems are going to be done shortly.

Remember, the conference report can not be amended, so this will be an up or down vote. But there will surely be many statements about the merits/pitfalls of this budget plan before that.

Decker's office says the votes are there to pass the report.

-- By Greg Bump

The Republican Senate caucus is nearly through the conference report, according to Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald's office. There may yet be follow-up questions for the LFB in their briefing.

Senate Democrats are also moving swiftly, but no estimate was given by Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker's office on how much longer their caucus will take.

Sen. Decker said he didn't know when asked after the conference committee if he had the votes to pass the conference report.

-- By Greg Bump

Who's up for an all-nighter?

Under the Assembly 24-hour rule, they have to wait a full day after the bill has been made available to members before they can come to the floor.

The bill was made available at about 8:15 or 8:30 tonight.

-- By Greg Bump

The Senate will go to the floor at some point tonight, but both Democrats and Republicans will have as much time as they need to ask questions of the LFB in caucus.

"I don't think we're going to set a timeline," Sen. Decker said.

-- By Greg Bump

Sen. Decker offered a brief defense of the budget proposal before gaveling the meeting to a close.

He said the budget doesn't contain across-the-board increases to sales, income or gas taxes and it "does a pretty good job of holding the line on property taxes."

He said Republicans are unhappy because it makes tax policy in Wisconsin "progressive again."

The QEO repeal is included to "end the Republican assault on teachers."

And he said he thought there was a good compromise on the school choice program for Milwaukee, saying it contains "major advances."

Once again, here is a link to the comparative summary.

-- By Greg Bump

4-2, along party lines.

-- By Greg Bump

Sen. Fitzgerald and Rep. Fitzgerald didn't offer a lot of motions, but they did offer a one-two punch to the proposal in their comments.

"This is the deepest, darkest budget I have ever seen negotiated in this building," Sen. Fitzgerald said.

He said the deal was negotiated in the LFB offices by a few people, and even rank-and-file members of the majority party are unaware of its contents.

"This committee is a sham and a mockery of the process," he said.

Rep. Fitzgerald focused on fiscal matters. He asked the LFB for figures on tax and fee increases in this budget ($2.1 billion), all funds spending increases ($4 billion, or about 6.6 percent or 6.8 percent), and bonding (about $2.9 billion).

"What gets me is when they sit there and say this is going to protect working families. Are you kidding me?" Rep. Fitzgerald said. "This does nothing to protect the middle class. I said this on the floor of the Assembly -- this is a good old-fashioned Democrat budget."

Rep. Fitzgerald also took on Gov. Doyle.

"Where is he? Is he in D.C. again?" he asked. "We need to have a budget by June 30, and I haven't seen him in a long time. Does he care?"

-- By Greg Bump

Following conference committee and partisan caucus.

They're moving quickly here. Among the motions from committee Republicans are those to remove auto insurance minimum coverage increases, to remove early release of some prisoners, and changes to prevailing wage standards. They fail along party lines.

-- By Greg Bump

Sen. Fitzgerald motion to remove policy items from the budget fails.

Also tries a motion to remove earmarks. It fails.

Some other provisions as I skim the document:

-- Funding cuts to DOJ restored per Assembly budget.

-- New restrictions added to out-of-state travel for legislative service agency employees; no reimbursement without approval of Senate Org or Assembly Speaker.


-- By Greg Bump

This is it, the comparative summary of recommendations.

-- By Greg Bump

More details from conference report

- Moves off potential enumeration of the UW-Madison School of Nursing Building project until 2011-13.

- Contains language to allow non-residents tuition to UW System and Wisconsin technical college schools.

The heck with that. Here it is.

-- By Greg Bump

Some information has begun to leak about provisions in the motion from a source knowledgable of the deal:

Transpo funding -- no oil tax. Cap gains exclusion reduced to 30 percent, other transpo funding through combination of streams including PECFA and bonding

Use value language changes -- out

Minimum wage indexing -- out

Qeo repeal -- takes place the effective date of the bill

GAB -- remove Senate language and keep funding mechanism as sum sufficient

Mandatory auto insurance -- remains in the bill

-- By Greg Bump

-- By Greg Bump

No word yet from Dems when conference committee will begin. It's now 11.5 hours past the start time. Senate floor session still recessed until 9 o'clock.

The latest speculation about what the sticking points have been include the change in use value assessment and the Senate's proposal to change funding for GAB investigations to an annual appropriation.

Regardless, the clock is ticking.

-- By Greg Bump

Speaker Mike Sheridan just sent a note to Assembly members letting them know they won't be in session today, but asking them to keep tomorrow open.

Here's the note:

To all Members:


Conference Committee is still scheduled to convene this evening. However, the Assembly will not be in session today. Please keep your schedules open and flexible for tomorrow as the Assembly will be taking up the Conference Committee report when allowable by the Assembly Rules. Please be prepared to meet Friday evening to complete action on AB 75.


Thank you for your flexibility during this week.

Speaker Michael Sheridan


-- By Greg Bump

Senate President Fred Risser has just announced that the chamber's recess has been continued until 9 p.m.

The Senate Dem caucus is still set for 7 p.m.

Speculation continues that a deal is eluding the Assembly and Senate Dem leadership. Among the issues said to be causing consternation are RTAs, school choice and transpo funding.

-- By Greg Bump

The Joint Finance Committee has a 13.10 hearing scheduled Tuesday to OK spending federal stimulus money on road projects in DOT, victim compensation and assistance programs in DOJ, and AmeriCorps.

See the agenda here.

-- By Greg Bump

The Senate Dem caucus is now delayed until 7 p.m.

The caucus will take place after the conference committee -- presumably -- passes the conference report.

Then there will be a caucus before heading to the floor to vote on that report.

With the 24-hour rule for the Assembly, a Saturday session for that house is looking more and more likely.

-- By Greg Bump

Senate President Fred Risser just announced the chamber is in recess until 6 p.m.

The Senate session was supposed to begin at 3 p.m.

Then again, the conference committee was supposed to begin at 8 a.m., and there are no signs when it will reconvene.

-- By Greg Bump

Still no sign that conference committee is ready to roll, nearly seven hours after it was scheduled to start.

Senate Dems were to caucus at 3 p.m., but that's been pushed back. Assembly Dems aren't expecting to caucus until 4 or 5 p.m.

Word is the Senate still intends to vote on the conference report today/tonight.

UPDATE: Senate Dems now plan a caucus for 4 p.m.

-- By Greg Bump

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker's spokeswoman Carrie Lynch says that work continues in crafting the agreement between the Assembly and Senate Dems, and drafting of the agreement continues to delay the start of the meeting.

"Folks are working on some stuff and they're making some changes to it," Lynch said.

But she said the conference committee will still meet today. The Senate will likely vote on the package tonight, then the Assembly tomorrow.

Speculation has been that the cap gains increase vs. gas tax for transpo funding and regional transit authorities continue to be stumbling blocks, but leadership offices are mum on what points of contention remain.

-- By Greg Bump

Senate Dems have pushed the start of their pre-floor session caucus back to 3 p.m. to allow time for the conference committee to meet, according to Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker's office. The Senate floor session had been scheduled for 3.

Assembly Dems will also caucus this afternoon, but a time has not been set, according to Speaker Mike Sheridan's office.

-- By Greg Bump

Republicans on the conference committee are putting together motions to remove non-fiscal policy and earmarks from the conference report, and are looking at other areas to amend the proposal, according to Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald's office.

Other areas Republicans will target include the provisions to repeal the QEO, raise minimum auto insurance rates, early release of some prisoners, prevailing wage and school choice.

Jim Bender from Fitzgerald's office said they are still waiting to hear from the Dems on process before they know exactly what shape their motions will take.

Today's meeting was supposed to begin at 8 a.m. but has been postponed so Dems can draft their motions to reconcile the Assembly and Senate budgets. They may introduce an all-encompassing omnibus bill that addresses the entire document will be their vehicle, or if it will be broken down into smaller issue areas.

The Senate has a floor session scheduled for 3 p.m., but it's looking likely that start time will be delayed. The Assembly has a 24-hour rule that requires a full day to pass between when a bill is made available to members and when it can come to the floor.

-- By Greg Bump

At the request of Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald, the LFB has compiled memos listing earmarks and policy items in the Assembly and Senate budget proposals.

See the earmark memo here, and the policy memo here.

-- By Greg Bump

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker just announced that there is still some drafting work to do on Dem motions, and the start of today's conference committee meeeting, scheduled for 8 a.m., will be delayed.

Decker didn't give a specific start time.

-- By Greg Bump

Rep. Sheridan said Republicans "tried to blow up the process" tonight of what was intended to be an informational meeting.

"We knew that there was some common ground. They obviously didn't want to agree to anything tonight to find that common ground, things that aren't partisan. There's things that we should have been able to get done tonight and set aside," Sheridan told reporters following the meeting. "Now unfortunately tomorrow morning we're going to have to start this process once again. We're going to get through it. We're going to roll up our sleeves and get it done."

Sen. Fitzgerald said didn't mince words as the meeting closed, saying that Republicans were being "shoved out of the process."

"What you just saw was a charade, a joke and a mockery of the process," he said.

"I hope the voters see in the next election the abuses that have happened in this budget process," he said. "This is terrible what happened this evening."

See Sen. Fitzgerald's statement following the meeting here.

Sheridan said he made the decision not to move items of commonality between the Assembly and Senate off the agenda because Republicans "just wanted to fight tonight."

"It's disappointing because as I stated earlier we've got families that are really struggling out there and unfortunately they want to play games," Sheridan said.

Sen. Decker said afterward that the meeting was constructive because it offered conferees to ask questions of the LFB on the differences between Senate and Assembly positions.

"We wanted to offer anybody on the conference committee that opportunity," he said.

Decker said he didn't think the proceeding was a mockery or embarrassment as the Republican members suggested.

"I don't think it was. I think everybody that was watching and everybody that was here had a chance to see if we had a question it got answered by the Fiscal Bureau, not by a politician," he said.

Decker said there will be work tonight to get packages together for tomorrow, and he hopes the Legislature is still on track to get the budget done this week.

Listen to Rep. Sheridan's comments here.

Listen to Sen. Decker's comments here.

-- By Greg Bump

The conference committee will reconvene tomorrow at 8 a.m. Sen. Decker will be in the chair.

Decker said motions can be offered tomorrow, the bulk of which will be to items in the document, but there may be some motions that will deal with outside of the document.

-- By Greg Bump

After an hour and a half of listening to Sheridan "reading the titles of these paragraphs from a document prepared by the Fiscal Bureau a week ago," Sen. Fitzgerald has heard enough.

Calling tonight's proceedings "a mockery" and "an insult to the minority," Sen. Fitzgerald called on the committee to pull the plug on tonight's meeting.

"This makes no sense at all," he said.

"I have an 8th grade son at home who could do this," he said. "This is an insult to the minority right now. Like you're including us in the process. We haven't been included in the process."

Fitzgerald said the true negotiations will happen following adjournment tonight when the Dems go "behind closed doors" and come to a deal.

"This (meeting) is not a step to the final product. It is not," he said. "Let's just pull the plug on this. We are on TV. This is embarrassing."

Sen. Miller, the co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, said this process is similar to what happens at the beginning of JFC, when the LFB is consulted on what different provisions mean.

Rep. Fitzgerald said it's to late now for a Fiscal Bureau briefing.

The committee is on page 70 of the 109-page document.

-- By Greg Bump

Not much to update. The meeting has progressed the same for some time, with Rep. Sheridan reading the name of the budget item, and moving on if there are no questions.

There was a heated exchange earlier between Sen. Fitzgerald and Sen. Decker over funding for the Department of Justice.

Fitzgerald said the DOJ was being singled out because AG Van Hollen is a Republican. Sen. Decker said Senate Republicans had a chance to move an amendment for the DOJ provision in the Senate budget, and they didn't do it.

-- By Greg Bump

With option to take up a conference report. With all the apparent disagreements that exist, and no motions allowed tonight, the Fitzgeralds are questioning how the report could come together by 3 p.m. tomorrow and be ready for a vote.

The committee is on page 8 of the report, and the only item that has been approved for the report is one that the Assembly and Senate had agreement upon. But when the committee later came upon an item with Assembly/Senate agreement, it was held over until tomorrow. So now everything is on the table for tomorrow.

The discussion has cooled now. Speaker Sheridan reads the title of the item, and asks if there are any questions.

If there are questions, the LFB answers them. If not, the committee moves on.

-- By Greg Bump

The process tonight will be to work through the document, and lay aside the provisions where there isn't agreement, and approve those that will be in the conference report.

So far two out of the first three provisions have been left open, to be decided tomorrow.

Sen. Fitzgerald made a motion to approve the Assembly version of the fourth item in the summary, the sale of UW System properties.

Sheridan tells him that there won't be any motions tonight, that opportunity will come tomorrow. The UW System item was left open.

That will be the way most disagreements are handled tonight, apparently.

-- By Greg Bump

There are 189 differences between the Assembly and Senate budgets, and the plan is to go through them tonight one-by-one.

Sen. Fitzgerald asked whether items that are labeled as identical in the Assembly and Senate in the comparative summary be adopted in the conference report without having to go through them. He made a motion to that effect.

But Rep. Hubler said she may not necessarily support every one of those common item, saying this is her "chance" to make changes.

"There is no agreement. There is no deal," Hubler said. "Even though they say Assembly/Senate it doesn't mean they are going to be in the final document."

Decker said the Republicans have been bashing Dems for closed door meetings, and now they are trying to "carte blanche" the document. Sheridan said they are "talking out of both sides of (their) mouth."

Rep. Fitzgerald said the committee is a "charade" that he found out about 3 o'clock today, and wasn't told they would be going through all 189 items. He asked if he would have time to draft motions.

Sen. Fitzgerald asked what the Dems have been doing all week if they haven't been coming to agreements on these items. He asked about the "behind closed doors" meetings this week at the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

The motion failed 2-4, with the two Republicans voting for it.

"Let's get on with our work and quit wasting time," Sheridan said.

-- By Greg Bump

Rep. Sheridan and Sen. Decker touted the cuts to state government in the budget, and that it protects the middle class by not raising income or sales taxes, and "holds the line" on property taxes.

Sheridan said this will be the first budget done on time in 30 years.

Decker said the Dem proposal "squeezes every nickel out of every dollar" and he hopes to finish the budget "as quickly as we can."

Sen. Fitzgerald called the committee a "dog and pony show."

Sen. Fitzgerald called the committee a "facade" created to "sell to the people of Wisconsin that this was done in open."

"C'mon. N one's going to be fooled by what's going on here this afternoon," he said.

Rep. Fitzgerald, who is here tonight on his third wedding anniversary to his wife Andrea, said Dem claims about their budget protecting the middle class are disingenuous given the new taxes it contains.

"This budget will move the state of Wisconsin in the wrong direction when it finally gets signed into law," he said.

Sen. Miller and Rep. Hubler did not give opening statements.

-- By Greg Bump

The conference committee is about to begin. Rep. Mark Pocan, the co-chair of Joint Finance, is here, sitting behind Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan.

Pocan was expected to be on the committee, but his seat is occupied by Rep. Mary Hubler, D-Rice Lake.

Sheridan said they will go through the comparative summary of Senate and Assembly budget provisions "page by page" tonight and come back tomorrow to finalize the agreement.

-- By Greg Bump

The state Senate is expected to announce that a six-member conference committee will be formed to reconcile differences between the two budgets legislators approved, according to Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald's office.

The Assembly is expected to take the same action shortly thereafter, and the conference committee will convene later today. But it is not expected to vote on the bill.

The committee is expected to meet again tomorrow to deliberate.

However, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker said there is no deal on the budget.

UPDATE: The Senate committee members are Decker, D-Weston; Mark Miller, D-Monona; and Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau.

UPDATE 2: The Assembly committee members are Speaker Mike Sheridan, D-Janesville; Mary Hubler, D-Rice Lake, and Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon.

-- By Greg Bump

There are signs of possible movement on a budget deal.

Senate President Fred Risser came to the chamber floor this afternoon to recess the regular and special sessions until 3:30 p.m.

Asked by reporters why the move was made, Risser responded, "Things are moving."

Risser declined to comment further, saying he couldn't say anything else right now.

The delay comes amid speculation that a six-member conference committee will be appointed today and that a budget deal is nearing.

UPDATE: Reporters caught up with Assembly Majority Leader Tom Nelson this afternoon and asked him a few questions. He said things are "fluid."

-- By Greg Bump

The Club for Growth is running TV ads statewide knocking legislators for "trying to pull some incredible stunts" by seeking to raise auto insurance rates by more than $300 a year.

The 30-second spot features black-and-white footage of slapstick car crashes from decades ago.

"If they get their way, your insurance rates could jump 43 percent, putting Wisconsin auto insurance rates on a collision course to being among the highest in the nation," the narrator says.

One version of the ad ends with the narrator urging viewers to call Dem Reps. Penny Bernard Schaber and Ted Zigmunt and "tell them to put the brakes on this costly stunt."

See the spot in AdWatch.

-- By WisPolitics staff

The Senate this morning continued its recess until 1 o'clock, when it will have to take the formality of a skeletal session to acknowledge Gov. Doyle's call for a special session on the hospital assessment. It also appears the Assembly won't be taking up the special session bill today, though that hasn't been confirmed by Speaker Mike Sheridan's office.

Meanwhile, negotiations continue behind the scenes as leaders from both houses try to reconcile differences between the Senate and Assembly budgets.

The Assembly has a floor calendar tomorrow; the only item on the agenda is third reading of a bill to ban phosphorus in dish washing detergent.

-- By Greg Bump

State government will mostly shut down on eight days over the next two years under a furlough plan in an executive order signed by Gov. Jim Doyle today. See the executive order here.

Jennifer Donnelly, director of the Office of State Employee Relations, said "the vast majority" state agencies will close down on the designated days "unless they have a really good business reason" to remain open. Some exceptions may come in places such as the UW System, where the designated closing days may conflict with class schedules, she said.

All state employees will be required to take 16 furlough days over the next two years. In addition to the eight days outlined in the executive order, the agencies will be allowed to schedule the other eight days to accommodate service needs.

Those furlough days will be limited to one per week for an employee, structured that way to allow the state to "limit exposure to unemployment insurance," Donnelly said.

Donnelly said the furloughs and 2 percent wage rollbacks included in Doyle's order will save the state $224 million in GPR over the biennium. If the furloughs weren't imposed, an additional 1,200 to 1,500 layoffs would be required, she said.

The governor has already called for 1,100 layoffs in his budget plan, and an additional 300 could be necessary if union employees don't agree to a 2 percent pay rollback, Doyle has said.

Four options for how to implement the furloughs are laid out in a document from OSER that can be viewed here.

Donnelly said the furloughs will also apply to state employees in 24-hour facilities, and that furlough requirements for those facilities may be met by actions such as lengthening lunch breaks or other scheduling moves.

State agencies and the UW System don't have a deadline to submit their furlough plans to OSER, but Donnelly said the budget submitted by Doyle already reflects the reduced spending for salaries.

"They're going to have a budgetary push to put these changes in place," she said.

The days designated for closure this year are: Columbus Day, Monday, Oct. 12; and the day after Thanksgiving, Friday, Nov. 27.

In 2010, the designated closure days are: Presidents' Day, Monday, Feb. 15; the Friday before Memorial Day, May 28; Columbus Day, Monday, Oct. 11; and the day after Thanksgiving, Friday, Nov. 26.

Days designated for closure in 2011 are: Presidents' Day, Feb. 21; and the Friday before Memorial Day, May 27.

See the calendar of designated furlough days here.

A rundown provided by OSER of what other states are doing with furloughs can be found here.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan issued the below statement on Gov. Doyle's call for a special session on the hospital assessment.

Sheridan spokeswoman Rebekah Sweeney said she didn't yet know if the Assembly would take up the special session bill tomorrow.

Sheridan's statement:

"Throughout this process, Assembly Democrats have worked to pass a budget that closes the deficit, maintains priorities and eases the tax burden on Wisconsin's middle class and working families. We have also worked to pass a budget on time for the first time in 30 years. Thanks to our flexible, balanced approach, we are well-positioned to pass a budget bill on time. Just as we have in the past, Assembly Democrats will do everything necessary to capture Wisconsin's fair share of Medicaid dollars to lower medical costs, expand health care access, and help balance our state's bottom line."

-- By Greg Bump

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker issued the statement below on Gov. Doyle's call for a special session to take up the hospital assessment.

Decker spokeswoman Carrie Lynch said the Senate will not take up the bill tomorrow, as Doyle had ordered.

Decker's statement:

"The State Legislature has been working hard to make sure we could pass the budget on time for the first time in decades. We've had many bumps in the road that could have prevented us from getting it done on time, including getting the budget two weeks late from the governor's office and changing revenue estimates. But we are still on track to get the budget done by end of the month.

"We will be sending the special session bill to the Joint Committee on Finance for review," said Decker.

-- By Greg Bump

Gov. Jim Doyle has called a special session of the Legislature for tomorrow to take up the hospital assessment. The session is to begin at 1 p.m.

A notice from Doyle's office said in order for the bill to take effect by the federal deadline of June 30, it must pass the Legislature and be signed by Governor Doyle by June 29, 2009.

"The budget I submitted to the Legislature in February depends on making deep cuts and taking advantage of potential sources of federal revenue," Doyle said in the statement from his office. "My preference would be for the entire budget to be completed on time, but the Legislature is now facing critical financial deadlines and I am calling on them to act."

According to Doyle's office, the bill would increase the payments to hospitals by $108 million during this fiscal year, and allow the state to claim $74 million in additional federal Medicaid revenue, reducing the state's GPR spending for Medicaid by $26.6 million during the current fiscal year.

Talks between the Assembly and Senate to reconcile differences in the budget bills they passed have been slow to progress. Doyle said yesterday that the state could lose millions in federal dollars for the Medicaid program if the budget isn't completed by July 1.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan said moments ago that a conference committee comprised of three members from each house is being considered to move the budget compromise between the Assembly and Senate.

A six-person committee would not require a joint resolution, as a four-person committee would, and could be formed by order of the presiding officers in each house.

"We're exploring that, sure," Sheridan said of the possibility of a three-person conference committee.

Sheridan said he and Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker have had "informal conversations about the lay of the land." He said if a compromise on the full budget can't be reached in the next day or two, a special session will be called to take up budget items of immediate importance.

Gov. Jim Doyle said yesterday that the state will "lose a significant amount" of federal funding, particularly in the Medicaid program, if the budget isn't done by July 1.

"We have a couple things that have got to be done by the end of the month," he said.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly will not take up a resolution today to form a conference committee that would approve a budget compromise between the Assembly and Senate, according to Speaker Mike Sheridan spokeswoman Rebekah Sweeney.

The Assembly also has floor sessions set for tomorrow and Thursday, Sweeney said. The Senate is recessed until tomorrow.

Carrie Lynch, spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, said her boss is continuing to meet with LFB staff to talk about alternatives, but couldn't confirm that those meetings include Assembly leadership and staff or governor's staff. Sweeney also couldn't confirm this morning that Sheridan or his staff were taking part in meetings at the LFB.

"We all know we have to get this done," Lynch said. "The goal is to get this done by the end of the week to give the governor time to look it over and make his changes."

-- By Greg Bump

The Senate won't be in session tomorrow to pass a resolution to form a conference committee, Majority Leader Russ Decker's office said late this afternoon.

The Senate has been in recess since passing its version of the budget last Wednesday night.

Decker spokeswoman Carrie Lynch said the recess will be extended until Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Decker and top staff were meeting with Legislative Fiscal Bureau staff this afternoon to go over more budget numbers.

Lynch and Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan spokeswoman Rebekah Sweeney said there are no meetings planned between the legislative leaders to work out a budget agreement.

-- By Greg Bump

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker's spokeswoman Carrie Lynch said that a floor session for the Senate tomorrow is "pretty unlikely."

The Senate has stood in recess since passing its version of the budget last Wednesday night. On Thursday, Senate President Fred Risser gaveled in a skeletal session and continued the recess until tomorrow.

The recess could be continued tomorrow in a skeletal session.

The budget bill remains in the Senate as it was not messaged to the Assembly upon passage.

Decker and his staff are meeting with staff from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau today to go over some budget numbers this afternoon, Lynch said. She said she assumes a conference committee will be formed to reconcile differences in the Assembly and Senate budget plans.

The Assembly has a floor session scheduled for tomorrow with a calendar of bills unrelated to the budget.

UPDATE: 2:45 p.m. -- Lynch now says there could be a session tomorrow to name members of a conference committee, but there will not be a full session calendar tomorrow. A conference committee resolution can not be passed in a skeletal session.

-- By Greg Bump

Gov. Jim Doyle said today that the state will "lose a significant amount" of federal funding, particularly in the Medicaid program, if the budget isn't done by July 1.

"We are getting down to the last couple of days realistically that we need to get this thing done," he said.

The budget is currently in the hands of Senate and Assembly Democratic leaders, who need to come up with an agreement to reconcile differences in the budgets passed by their respective houses.

The governor said he needs three or four days, plus time for administrative tasks like drafting and printing the bill.

Doyle said he and his staff have been "very involved" since the Senate passed their version last Wednesday to get an agreement worked out.

"They really have to do that before July 1," he said. "The time is here and they're going to have to figure out their differences and get a bill to my desk ... I'll do anything I can to help move this process along."

Doyle said negotiations are ongoing, and he is "very hopeful" that a resolution will be reached.

"If we don't it's not going to be a good thing, and I may have to do some -- we have to get the Medicaid bill passed by July 1 or we could lose a lot of money," he said.

-- By Greg Bump

Representatives from law enforcement, the dairy industry, labor groups and religious organizations urged lawmakers this morning to approve a provision in the state budget that would provide limited driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants.

The state Senate last week stripped the provision out of the budget after the Assembly had signed off on it. A series of speakers this morning asked the Senate to reverse course, stressing it was not an immigration issue, but rather about providing safe roads in Wisconsin.

Dairy farmer John Rosenow of Cochran said many immigrants working in rural Wisconsin studied for driver's license exams and took the test to obtain licenses prior to the approval of the federal REAL ID bill. Since then, he said there has not been a drop in the number of immigrants driving on rural roads but rather a decrease in safety.

"The only issue here is safety," Rosenow said.

Speakers at this morning's news conference singled out state Sen. Tim Carpenter as a key member of the Senate that they plan to lobby to restore the provision.

Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, issued a statement this morning saying that 90 percent of the constituents who have contacted his office on the issue oppose the provision. He also expressed concerns that it was added to the budget without opportunity for public testimony or comment.

"Rarely have the voters in my District expressed opinions so overwhelmingly against an issue," Carpenter said in the statement.

Carpenter had a meeting planned with representatives of Voces de la Frontera scheduled for this morning to talk about this issue.

UPDATE: Following an hour-long meeting with advocates, Carpenter refused to back down from his opposition to the driver's license provision.

Carpenter reiterated the opposition his constituents have expressed to the proposal as well as his concerns over its late addition to the budget by the Joint Finance Committee with no public hearing.

The advocates urged Carpenter to ignore what he's heard from voters and instead focus on what they believe is a matter of fairness and human rights. They also insisted illegal immigrants would continue to drive even without the licenses.

"As a legislator, I'm not going to change laws just because someone says they're going to do it anyway," Carpenter said.

Speaking at an event in Madison today, Gov. Jim Doyle said he'd have to see what comes to his desk on the driver's license provision, but he hopes that his proposal to allow the children of illegal immigrants who graduate from Wisconsin high schools to pay in-state tuition rates is restored to the final budget sent to him.

-- By JR Ross

In a memo to legislative leadership, the Wisconsin Counties Association states positions on several components of the Senate budget proposal.

The WCA supports several Senate provisions, including the proposal to sunset the police and fire protection fee and to increase payments to nursing homes and for care of patients in mental health institutions, but oppose changes to language on public works contracts and bids and arbitration weight factors.

See the WCA memo here.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly and Senate leaders did not meet over the weekend to discuss how to reconcile the differences in the Assembly and Senate versions of the 2009-111 budget, according to spokeswomen for Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker and Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan.

Gov. Jim Doyle said this morning at an appearance at UW-Madison's Fluno Center that talks are ongoing, according to spokesman Lee Sensenbrenner.

Doyle spokeswoman Carla Vigue said this morning that there may have been informal talks by phone between the governor's staff and legislators and their staff, but she wasn't aware of any formal meetings.

Budget talks are expected to re-start today. The Assembly has a floor session scheduled for tomorrow, and the Senate is recessed until tomorrow. Legislators have said they want to have the budget work completed and signed by the governor by the end of this fiscal year, which is next Wednesday.

-- By Greg Bump

A little-noticed provision in the Senate budget would redefine agricultural land for property tax purposes -- a measure that's making developers nervous and municipalities hopeful.

The provision would make land that is platted and zoned for residential, commercial or industrial use but used for agricultural purposes eligible for property taxes of the "highest and best" use of the land. Currently, the land is assessed based on the "use value" it would derive from being rented as farm land.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau didn't have an estimate for how much acreage the change might impact.

Thomas Larson, director of regulatory and legislative affairs for the Wisconsin Realtors Association, charged the change would have a chilling effect on economic development statewide.

"Given the economic downturn there have been a lot of developments put on hold, stopped in their tracks because of poor economic conditions," he said. "We could see a lot of the same foreclosures we've seen in residential market beginning to occur in the commercial market."

The change was first proposed two years ago, when the Alliance of Cities brought it to then-Joint Finance Committee co-chair Russ Decker. Control of the JFC was split at the time between Assembly Republicans and Senate Democrats, and it was kept out of the JFC budget on an 8-8 vote.

Decker spokeswoman Carrie Lynch said the current definition allows for a huge tax shift to other property taxpayers. She said the use value law was intended to preserve farm land, not as a way to keep land at a lower valuation.

"This is about closing a loophole that developers are using to escape paying their fair share of property taxes and when that happens homeowners have to pick up the tab," Lynch said. "Developers are trying to hide behind farmers for a tax break."

The Alliance of Cities and League of Wisconsin Municipalities are supportive of the change.

But Madison development attorney Mike Lawton says the change will also hurt farmers who have land zoned for future development. And it could force developments to be rushed and of lesser quality as developers try to wait until they come up with the best fit for the land.

"It is unfair to those who developed in reliance on existing law. It could affect banks who will have to pick up the pieces and pay the taxes when they get land back in foreclosure," he said. "I expect this will lower the value of farm land on the edge of communities as the holding costs will force a decrease in prices for farmers."

UPDATE: The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation has issued a "call to action" regarding the use value budget provision. See their press release here.

-- By Greg Bump

Door County Administrator Mike Serpe contends an unnoticed provision to change statutory bidding requirements in the Senate's budget would make county construction costs soar.

In the email below sent to legislative leaders, the governor's office and others, Serpe lays out his points. He says the "onerous provisions defy any logical explanation, and to date, not even illogical explanations have bee proffered as to their existence."

Dear Legislative Leaders,

In the Senate Budget version, unexplained provisions relating to redefining the statutory bidding requirements mysteriously appeared.

In the redefinition the Senate has included provisions that require ALL Improvement work greater than $25,000 to be BID!

The key points here are

*The legal opinion says this statutory provision if adopted supersedes any and all other statutes relating to bidding including the intergovernmental cooperation Statutes.
*This provision would require County Boards to Bid all improvements over $25,000 and eliminates the ability of the County to do work on their own system with their own funds with their own crews.
*This also eliminates the ability of Counties to do work for Municipalities in their County and requires the Municipality to bid all improvements over $25,000.

Adding insult to injury, in 2. PUBLIC WORKS CONTRACTS AND BIDS -- RESPONSIBLE BIDDER (page 128-129) you will find the following language as well: Specify that if a "municipality" does not receive any responsible bids, it would be authorized to contract with another "municipality," other than a county, or perform the work directly without being subject to the competitive bid and lowest responsible bidder requirements.

These onerous provisions defy any logical explanation, and to date, not even illogical explanations have been proffered as to their existence.

We, and the people who pay the freight, deserve better than this.

Regards,

Michael J. Serpe
Administrator, County of Door


-- By Greg Bump

Spokeswomen for Dem legislative leaders said this morning there are no plans yet for a formal or informal meeting to reconcile differences between the Assembly and Senate budgets.

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker is in Madison and has been meeting with Sen. Mark Miller, the co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, spokeswoman Carrie Lynch said.

She said lawmakers in both houses are taking time to look over the document the Senate passed Wednesday night.

"By Monday everyone will have had enough time to have gone through it and we'll move from there," Lynch said. "We want to get it done quickly, but this is the last stop so everyone needs a few days to go through the document and digest it."

"The goal is still to get it done by the end of next week if we can," she said.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Democrats were in caucus for about two hours this afternoon to talk budget issues.

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker is going over the LFB comparative summary of the Senate and Assembly budgets with staff today.

Neither Decker's office or Assembly Speaker Sheridan's office had any updates on meetings, formal or informal, between the two houses to iron out the differences in their budgets.

-- By Greg Bump

The LFB has posted a comparative summary of the Assembly and Senate versions of the budget. See it here.

-- By Greg Bump

Phil Walzak, communications director for Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan, said the Assembly will not pass a resolution today to form a conference committee.

The Senate earlier this morning recessed until Tuesday without forming a conference committee. The Assembly also has a floor session set for Tuesday.

Sheridan spokeswoman Rebekah Sweeney said the Assembly members of the conference committee could be named tomorrow, but they are not expected to meet until next week.

"Everything's fluid right now," she said. "We've told our members to be available all next week."

Walzak said Assembly leadership is looking over the Senate budget and will be "taking the pulse" of the Assembly Dem caucus on it.

He said the Legislature remains on track to get the budget to the governor by the end of next week.

Walzak said he wasn't sure if any informal talks between leadership of the two houses have been scheduled.

-- By Greg Bump

Senate President Fred Risser has formally recessed the Senate until Tuesday; session was held in recess last night after the Senate passed its version of the budget. In the Assembly, the Rules Committee has set a meeting for 1 p.m. today to set a floor schedule for that body next week.

Now, attention turns to the formation of the conference committee.

Some observers aren't expecting a conference committee to be formally named until a budget deal is struck between majority Dems in the Assembly and Senate. Those observers cite the requirement to follow open meetings rules as a reason the formal declaration of a conference committee may be delayed.

Some observers point to Tuesday as the day the conference report could be announced and voted on by the conference committee, while others say it's optimistic to believe that the differences between the Assembly and Senate budgets could be resolved by then.

-- By Greg Bump

Sen. Jim Sullivan, the lone Senate Democrat to vote against the budget, said it was important for him to "cast a vote that was in keeping with my district."

"There is some good in this budget," Sullivan said, citing tax credits for job creation and capital expenditure for the UW System. "But in the end there were some things in here that I could not vote for and believe that I was keeping up with the promise I made two-and-a-half years ago to represent a district and not a party or ideology."

Sullivan said problem provisions for him included the JFC's proposal for regional transit authorities and the Milwaukee County sales tax, the delay of the Zoo Interchange project, and tax and fee increases, though he declined to single any out.

"However you have to make tough decisions," Sullivan continued. "The majority did that. I respect that and I'm not going to piecemeal this thing out."

Sullivan shrugged off suggestions that he was given a pass on the budget vote from his caucus because he holds a district many see as difficult for Dems to keep in 2010.

"You know there's no pass to be asked for and there's no pass to be given," he said. "We all are individual senators representing individual communities. This was not right for my district, and I communicated that to my colleagues.

"I'm not about to step on their toes for some of the hard work that people did making some really, really hard decisions."

Sullivan said he expects to vote "no" on the budget report from the conference committee if his concerns aren't addressed.

-- By Greg Bump

On final passage, Dem Sen. Sullivan votes against the bill along with 15 Republicans.

The next step will be conference committee to reconcile the differences between the Assembly and Senate budgets. The Assembly has a resolution on its calendar for tomorrow to form a conference committee. No word yet on when the Senate will vote on a similar resolution.

UPDATE: Instead of adjournment Sen. Decker moved to recess the session until tomorrow, so maybe there will be a vote on the resolution to form a conference committee then.

-- By Greg Bump

The latest GOP amendment has been tabled, and there are only a couple more on the board at this time. So far the only change to the Dems package was the amendment to fix some language in the simple amendment.

Looks like they're in the home stretch now.

UPDATE: 8:44 p.m. -- They're on amendment 32, the last amendment, right now.

-- By Greg Bump

GOP Sen. Darling says it will put repeat drunk drivers like Mark Benson back on the street.

Dem Sen. Taylor says repealing the changes to early release will cost the state an additional $660 million over the biennium.

Meanwhile, there are only five or six senators on the floor. Arguments seem to be losing steam.

The observers and staff who are left are making bets about how much longer the session will last.

UPDATE: Senate Dems have just dispensed of amendment number 22.

-- By Greg Bump

An amendment proposed by Dems to clean up some language in their simple amendment passed 33-0.

-- By Greg Bump

They're on amendment 10 now. So far eight GOP amendments have been tabled.

Republicans will ultimately offer 32 amendments.

UPDATE: 7:25 p.m.: They're now on amendment number 14. Tabling continues unabated.

-- By Greg Bump

There are a couple of guys quietly holding signs outside the chamber here.

"Taxed enough yet," their giant placards, painted red with the letters in white. The signs also have the address for a Web site pushing for the recall of Gov. Jim Doyle on the bottom.

Other signs the gents have nearby by bear messages like "In Doyle we trusted, now we're busted."

UPDATE: Actually there are three protesters. And they are being interviewed by a TV crew, so be sure to tune in at 10.

-- By Greg Bump

The debate on an amendment to remove earmarks from the budget drew a nice quip from GOP Sen. Hopper.

After being accused of larding the budget bill with pork, Sen. Decker read a list of earmarks included in past budgets when Republicans controlled the Legislature.

Hopper responded that given the state's $6.6 billion deficit, this is not the time to follow past practices on pork barrel spending.

"I can stand up here and say I haven't voted for a single earmark in my career," Hopper said, drawing bipartisan laughs.

Hopper is a freshman senator voting on his first budget.

The amendment was tabled on a party-line 18-15 vote.

-- By Greg Bump

The first GOP amendment offered was ruled non-germane because it was addressed in the Dem super simple amendment.

The second was tabled on an 18-15 vote, with Sen. Sullivan this time joining his Dem colleagues to thwart the amendment.

UPDATE: 6:02 p.m. -- Another GOP amendment falls 18-15. This one would have removed policy from the budget.

Now being discussed is an amendment to remove all earmarks.

-- By Greg Bump

It passed 17-16. Dem Sen. Sullivan voted with the 15 Republican members. (Note: The roll call has the vote as 17-15, but GOP Sen. Lasee was out of the room at the time of the vote and later had his voted recorded as a "no.")

We still have to work through the GOP amendments, and then final passage at the end of the session.

But this kind of sucks the drama out of the night, no?

-- By Greg Bump

GOP Sen. Kanavas is railing against the Senate Dems plan to eliminate the capital gains exclusion, saying it will kill business and investment.

He said this budget will have ripple effects for years, and two years from now the state's fiscal situation will be even worse.

"People will invest. They just won't do it here," Kanavas said.

UPDATE: 5:20 p.m. -- GOP Sen. Darling just finished a stemwinder, saying that Dems are misleading the public by saying this budget protects middle class families.

"This (budget) is a job killer. It's a Wisconsin killer," she said.

Dem Sen. Hansen's response: "It is a terrible budget. There are a lot of people hurt here. But where is your plan?"

-- By Greg Bump

There seems to be a lack of copies of the Dems simple amendment. Some Republican members don't have them yet. Sen. Decker has offered to have the Dems share their copies with them.

UPDATE: 4:55 p.m. -- Copies are now made and being distributed by page staff. In the meantime, GOP Sen. Grothman is filling the time by blasting the Dems for spending more during this recession.

"Prior to taking this vote think of the budget cuts families are making at home," Grothman said.

Dem Sen. Lassa counters that the budget also invests more in innovation and entrepreneurial growth, and includes provisions to encourage development in rural Wisconsin.

"It's not fair to say this budget doesn't look at job creation and expansion. It does," Lassa said.

-- By Greg Bump

The Senate budget session is underway.

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker has just given his opening statement, and Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald is giving his now.

Republicans are expected to offer about 30 amendments.

-- By Greg Bump

The Senate sub amendment to the budget bill can be viewed here. All 1903 pages.

Whoops! Here is a link to the Senate sub amendment. A mere 182 pages.

The first link on the page is to the JFC version.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan's statement on the Senate Democrats' budget package:

"In the face of a historic $6.6 billion deficit, Assembly and Senate Democrats were charged with the responsibility of making tough decisions to balance our state budget and get Wisconsin on a path to prosperity once again.

"While there are some differences in the Assembly and Senate versions of the budget, it is clear that we share the same basic priorities and values. We have created a common-sense budget plan that makes the deepest spending cuts Wisconsin has ever seen; protects the overwhelming majority of Wisconsin workers and families from income, sales and payroll tax increases; and preserves critical investments in economic development, education, health care, job creation and support for local communities.

"Over the coming days, leadership from both houses and both sides of the aisle will meet to iron out the final version of the budget. Assembly Democrats are committed to passing this budget on time, and we are on track to meet that goal."

-- By Greg Bump

Senate President Fred Risser announced Senate will convene at 4:30 p.m.

-- By Greg Bump

Gov. Jim Doyle told reporters after a meeting of the State Building Commission today that he prefers his budget proposal's oil company assessment with anti-pass through language to the Senate Dems' version, which would remove the assessment in favor of eliminating the capital gains exclusion.

"Obviously, I didn't include in my budget a significant change in capital gains," Doyle said. "We made one, it was on the margin, it made a real difference. That's what I think we should be doing on the capital gains side."

Instead, Doyle maintained his support for anti-pass through language, noting that the Supreme Court has unanimously upheld similar language in Puerto Rico.

"I've heard a lot of these people give all their legal theories, but I've yet to have anyone even tell me legally what their challenge is," Doyle said. "I believe that the oil companies should help us pay for the roads and bridges in this state where they make zillions of dollars based on us having good roads."

The governor praised the Senate Dems for the mandatory auto insurance provision in their budget. He advocated increasing the insurance minimums, saying limits set "30 years ago" do not offer taxpayers adequate protection.

"I think people who are out on the roads driving should have liability insurance, and I think it should be at a level that protects people that might be harmed," Doyle said.

Doyle also stressed the importance of getting the budget through the Senate and a conference committee in time to sign the budget by the beginning of the new fiscal year.

"I want a budget done, I want it done on July 1," Doyle said. "We don't have any time to delay."

Listen to Doyle's comments here.

-- By Greg Bump

They got the prayer and the pledge out of the way, then headed to caucus.

-- By Greg Bump

View the summary Senate Dem caucus budget amendment here.

Among the highlights the Senate proposal:

- Restores Gov. Doyle's original proposal to repeal the QEO effective the date of the bill. The Joint Finance Committee and Assembly set the repeal date at July 1, 2010.

- Provides $772,000 annually for hold harmless payments that have net pupil transfers out of the district under the open enrollment program of more than 10 percent per pupil membership.

- Increases sparsity aid to $300 for eligible districts in 2009-10.

- Deletes the JFC provision to require a choice school with an enrollment of more than 10 percent limited-English proficient students to have a bilingual-bicultural education program.

- Deletes the JFC provision providing an exemption from nonresident tuition for undocumented immigrants to the UW System and Wisconsin Technical College System.

- Deletes the creation of a Division of Legal Services in the Dept. of Administration.

- Specifies that private contractors or consultants can not be used to fill duties that would be performed by state employees in the absence of a hiring freeze or furlough.

- Modifies a provision on expungement of criminal records to specify that eligible class H to I felonies may only be expunged for first-time convictions.

- Increases the fee collected by clerks of courts for judgments, writs, executions, liens, warrants, awards and certificates from $5 to $10. The revenue would be retained by the county or municipality.

- Excludes a number of offenses from the early release program for prisoners.

- Specifies that additional public utility assessments for the public benefits fund be used for salaries and fringe benefits for district attorneys rather than Wisconsin Works, providing $18,279,400 over the biennium.

- Allows arbitrators to consider to revenue limits when reviewing contract disputes involving school district employees and employers. But it excludes arbitrators from weighing accumulated fund balances in arbitration decisions.

- Deletes JFC language related to contributory negligence and jury instructions in civil actions involving contributory language, or the dreaded joint and several provision.

- Modifies current law regarding payment in a first class city to police officers after a member has been discharged or suspended by allowing the municipality to discharge a member without pay or benefits.

- Deletes provision that would have specified that legal notices be posted on agency or constitutionally recognized Web sites rather than the official state newspaper.

- Provides UW System research assistants with collective bargaining rights.

- Increases from $37.1 million to $40.1 million the annual amounts of funding for the Dept. of Health Services as supplemental MA payments to municipally-owned nursing homes.

- Provides $2.6 million over the biennium to permit counties to benefit from changes in FMAPs under the federal recovery act as it relates to DHS charges for the care of children and elderly patients.

- Provides $295,700 for DHS to reimburse the Trempealeau County Health Care Center for the cost that it incurs for paying the nursing home bed assessment.

- Provides $521,800 to Langlade County for the cost of expanding Family Care six months earlier than the proposed implementation.

- Restores $14.85 million to the renewable energy grant and loan program in 2010-11.

- Grants $700,000 to the Pleasant Prairie Technology Incubator Center.

- Transfers $5 million from the general fund over the biennium to the recycling and renewable energy fund.

- Requires owners of construction landfills to pay solid waste tipping fees for materials generated from construction, demolition or razing of buildings after Jan. 1, 2010, generating more than $1 million over the biennium.

- Deletes the provision that would have authorized the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District to let one contract for a specific project that uses the design-build process, for a project to transform landfill gas into electricity.

- Maintains current law regarding public access on lands acquired through the state stewardship program.

- Creates a bill of rights for foster children and foster parents.

- Deletes provision that would have required the Dept. of Children and Families to distribute $55,000 annually to the Gay Straight Alliance for Safe Schools from the amounts appropriated for the Brighter Futures program.

- Deletes the provision that would specify that the total number of months in which an individual or adult member of the individual's W-2 group receives assistance may not exceed the 60-month federal time limit. Instead, the current law time limit of 60 months based on the length of time an individual participates in a subsidized W-2 employment position or other TANF program would remain.

- Deletes the provision that would eliminate Learnfare.

- Creates a subsidized private sector employment position program as part of the W-2 program.

- Limits the number of hours a child may receive care under Wisconsin Shares to 12 hours a day, or 16 hours a day if the program participant provides written documentation of work and transportation requirements exceeding 12 hours a day.

- Eliminates capital gains exclusion other than gains from certain farming assets, generating and additional $315 million in the biennium. The JFC had reduced the current 60 percent exclusion to 40 percent for all types of capital assets. Note: Compared to current law for capital gains, eliminating the exclusion would increase state revenues by $485.6 million.

- Provides an individual income tax deduction of $3,000 for college savings account contributions.

- Deletes provisions relating to laws governing manufacturers and rectifiers of liquor.

- Requires the Dept. of Revenue to issue Class B liquor and beer permits to tribal applicants.

- Permits a third class city in Dane County with a population of 15,000 to 16,000 to issue two Class B liquor licenses in addition to the number of licenses permitted under the city's current law quota.

- Creates statutory provisions authorizing issuance of additional Class B liquor licenses in capital improvement areas enumerated by the Legislature.

- Deletes the provision allowing non-profit organizations to provide beer or wine for free during fundraising events without the need to hold a municipal license.

- Sunsets the police and fire protection fee effective June 30, 2011.

- Excludes non-retail and nonvoice communication devices from the 75-cent per month police and fire protection fee created by the JFC.Specifies that the fee not be imposed on each phone assigned to a telephone number. Modifies the provision allowing a provider to list the fee separately from other charges on a subscriber's bill to also allow a provider to combine the fee with the charge authorized under current law for 911 services if it is identifies as "charge for funding countywide 911 systems plus police and fire protection fee."

- Repeals the funding mechanism for countywide 911 systems authorized under current law on July 1, 2011, and creates a 911 grant program administered by the PSC. This provision would impose a monthly surcharge on subscribers' bills, to be initially set at a maximum of 75-cents or lower amount set by the PSC.

- Makes several modifications to the prevailing wage provision such as: modifying the definition of "local government unit" to include a regional transit authority; modifies the definition of state agency to include UW Hospitals, the Fox River Navigational System Authority and Wisconsin Aerospace Authority; excludes minor service or maintenance work, warranty work or work under a supply and installation contract from the law.

- Requires the Dept. of Workforce Development to revise the state minimum wage on Sept. 1 of each year based on calculating the percentage difference between the consumer price index for the one year period ending on May 31 of the preceding year and the CPI for the one year period ending on May 31 of the current year, adjusting the minimum wages in effect on Aug. 31 of the current year by that percentage difference, and rounding the result to the nearest multiple of five cents. The wage for camp counselors, however, would have to be rounded to the nearest dollar.

- Deletes the oil company profits tax, and transfer $260 million GPR into transportation fund. (See capital gains exclusion elimination above.)

- Makes several modifications to the JFC's regional transit authority proposals, including: allowing Dane County RTA to transfer revenue from sales and use taxes to any political subdivision within it's jurisdiction for highway projects; requires a referendum for the Dane County RTA to exceed a 0.5 percent sales and use tax; allows Ashland and Bayfield counties to create the Chequamegon Bay Regional Transit Authority if ratified by a referendum; provides Milwaukee County with the authority to impose a sales and use tax of 1 percent, and use 85 percent of the revenues for transit, parks, culture and emergency services.

- Requires DOT, with exceptions, to ensure bike and pedestrian ways are established in all new highway construction and reconstruction projects funded from state or federal funds provided in Dept. of Transportation appropriations or bonds.

- Requires the DOT to construct a bicycle and pedestrian path and bridge with lighting along State Highway 102 in the Village of Rib Lake.

- Eliminates a provision to require the DOT to issue a drivers card for undocumented immigrants.

- Mandates drivers have liability insurance for their vehicle, with some exceptions.

- Restores funding for state patrol posts in Spooner and Tomah, and requires DOT to collaborate with the DNR on shared use of facilities in Tomah.

- Increases the first dollar tax credit for the 2009 tax year by $15 million, and by $5 million in 2010 and each year thereafter.

- Changes expenditure restraint program language setting the minimum change under the "inflation factor" to 3 percent and the one-time adjustment for municipalities also receiving aid under the payments for municipal services programs by basing the adjustment on the 2009 aid payment, rather than 2010.

- Modifies the "Columbus Park" fix.

- Allows Burnett County to adopt an ordinance to increase it sales and use tax from 0.5 percent to 1 percent, if approved by a majority of voters, for the purpose of upgrading radio towers to satisfy FCC requirements.

-- By Greg Bump

-- By Greg Bump

The Senate will come to the floor at 1 p.m., but it will quickly go to recess to allow time for the state Building Commission to meet and for Senate Republicans to review the Senate Dems budget proposal.

The LFB summary of the Senate Dems budget package has not yet been released due to a drafting error that had to be corrected, according to Sen. Decker's office. The LFB document should be available soon, they said.

The start of deliberations will also be delayed to allow time for Sen. Schultz to return to Madison from his father's funeral.

-- By Greg Bump

The Senate Dem budget proposal will include the removal of the oil profits tax and will eliminate the capital gains exclusion, according to a source familiar with the proposal.

Eliminating the capital gains exclusion will bring in about $300 million in revenue over the biennium which will be used to replace the money the oil profits tax would have collected, according to the source.

The LFB summary of the Senate Democrats' budget plan has not yet been released. The floor session is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

-- By Greg Bump

A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, said this morning the votes are there to pass the budget today.

"We have enough," said Decker spokeswoman Carrie Lynch.

Democrats have an 18-15 majority in the Senate. Seventeen votes are required to pass an appropriations bill such as the budget.

Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said yesterday that no Republicans will be voting for the budget.

An LFB summary of the Senate Dems budget proposal is expected to be released soon. Senate Repubs are caucusing this morning to devise their amendment strategy.

-- By Greg Bump

Senate Democrats have agreed to remove joint and several liability from the budget and are including language for mandatory auto insurance, according to details WisPolitics was able to verify through multiple sources familiar with the package.

Also, the Senate version will remove provisions to give undocumented immigrants driver licenses, and in-state tuition for the children of undocumented immigrants.

The Senate Dems caucused until about 11:30 last night. They are not releasing details on their budget plan until the Legislative Fiscal Bureau releases its summary of the proposal.

Senate Republicans will caucus at 10 this morning. A floor session is scheduled for 1 p.m.

-- By Greg Bump

Senate Democrats ended their caucus on the budget at about 11:30 p.m., more than 10 hours after it began. A summary of their budget proposal will be released later, according to Sen. Decker's office.

-- By Greg Bump

Senate Dems are stil going in 411 South.

According to Decker's office, it's not likely details of Senate Dem budget plan will be released until tomorrow.

-- By Greg Bump

The closed caucus is still in progress. Pizzas were delivered a short while ago, which could mean the Senate Dems expect to be working late.

Or it could mean they're hungry.

-- By Greg Bump

Senate Republicans are out of their caucus on the budget. They are planning to reconvene the caucus tomorrow at 10 a.m.

A Senate floor session is tentatively set to begin at 1 p.m.

-- By Greg Bump

GOP Sens. Randy Hopper, Sheila Harsdorf and Dan Kapanke will offer amendments to strip all policy and earmarks out of the budget when the bill comes to the floor tomorrow.

See their press release here.

-- By Greg Bump

Day two of the Senate Democrats' caucus on the budget started out like day one, with the meeting being closed almost immediately.

Senate Republicans are also in closed caucus as they devise their budget strategy.

-- By Greg Bump

The Senate Org meeting just concluded and a 1 p.m. tentative start time was set for a floor session tomorrow.

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker said his caucus continues work on crafting their budget proposal.

"We've still got a few issues to get through yet," Decker said following the Org meeting.

"I think we're getting closer," Decker said, referring to the 17 votes needed to pass the budget. "We're narrowing it down and working out some compromises."

Decker said it's possible that a conference committee to reconcile differences between the Assembly and Senate budget bills could begin as early as this week, though details won't be finalized until after the Senate votes.

"They might concur," Decker joked, referring to the Assembly. "Did you ever think of that?"

Decker hinted he will push to uphold budget cuts to the Department of Justice approved by the Joint Finance Committee. The Assembly reversed those cuts in their budget last week.

"We just think he needs to be in the mix as well as the other agencies," Decker said, but didn't offer a final stand.

"We're not that far yet," he said.

Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said following the Org meeting that his members are working on about 50 or 60 amendments, and he said they are being drafted to "target certain senators."

"Right now the assumption is that Senator Sullivan is voting no," Fitzgerald said. "Well that puts the focus on some of the other legislators."

Fitzgerald said it is "common knowledge" that Sullivan's caucus has "let him off the hook" of voting for this budget.

"Anything that's going on behind closed doors now is to probably twist the arm of one other senator," Fitzgerald said, tossing out Sens. Vinehout, Plale and Carpenter as possible holdouts.

"Who knows exactly where the pressure will be but a lot of our amendments are based on drawing a contrast between what some of these people are saying back home and actually how they're going to vote here in Madison," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said the DOJ cuts were "punitive, politically motivated ... I think even some of the Democrats in the Assembly saw that.?

Fitzgerald asked Decker if there would be Republicans on the conference committee that will likely be formed to iron out differences between the Senate and Assembly versions of the budget. Decker said he expects Republicans to be included. "It's always been that way in the past," he said.

Fitzgerald said afterward that if Republicans are included, it would be him and his brother, Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald, who would sit on the committee.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Democrats are getting some love from nontraditional sources for pulling liability reforms from the budget.

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce is running regional radio ads in Madison, Milwaukee, Eau Claire, Sparta, Stevens Point and the Rice Lake praising various the Assembly Dems for the removal of joint and several liability, or urging listeners to contact Senate Democrats to push them to exclude the provision from the budget. And tomorrow, WMC will run an ad in the business section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel hailing Assembly Democrats for joining Assembly Republicans to oppose the liability changes.

Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Civil Justice Council is running a TV ad thanking the Assembly for removing liability reforms from the state budget.

According to a WCJC spokesman, the ad began running Saturday in most markets across the state.

Find the ads in Ad Watch.

-- By Greg Bump

A tentative Senate calendar has just been sent out for a Wednesday floor session to take up the state budget.

A Senate Org meeting is scheduled for today at 11 a.m.

-- By Greg Bump

Senate Democrats deliberated until about 10:30 last night.

They'll meet again today starting at 1 p.m.

-- By Greg Bump

Senate Democrats remained in closed caucus late this afternoon. No announcements are expected this evening, and a floor session tomorrow appears unlikely.

-- By Greg Bump

The tentative Assembly calendar sent out for a Thurday floor session includes the following note:

"Note: It is also possible that a resolution for Convening a Conference Committee will become available in the upcoming week."

-- By Greg Bump

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker stopped to answer a few questions about where he sees his house moving on the budget:

- Decker said he prefers an oil company assessment that includes anti-pass through language, as had been proposed by Gov. Doyle and approved by the JFC. Decker said that Assembly Democrats "abandoned their position" of having oil companies foot the bill.

- Decker said he would like to see liability reforms like joint and several liability in the Senate budget bill. "I'm hoping we can salvage that," he said.

- On regional transit authorities, he said that he liked what the Assembly did by including language on referendums to approve the systems, but said the overall changes to RTAs could be problematic for some of his members.

- Decker did not indicate that he had any disagreements with Assembly action to restrict certain criminal offenses from the early release program for some Wisconsin prisoners.

On a whole, Decker said he hasn't drawn "a line in the sand any place."

He said he hopes that the budget could come to the floor for a vote as early as tomorrow, or as soon as possible thereafter.

The Senate Dems closed their 1 p.m. budget caucus shortly after it began.

UPDATE: A summary compiled by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau of the Assembly's budget recommendations can be found here.

-- By Greg Bump

The Wisconsin Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association has unveiled a new TV ad thanking the state Assembly for eliminating the oil franchise fee during its budget deliberations last week.

"Faced with many tough decisions, Assembly members passed a budget that provides crucial funding for our infrastructure, creates jobs and better protects consumers and independent Wisconsin businesses," an announcer says in the 30-second spot. "They also made important changes that will go a long way to secure a stable transportation fund that is fairer for everyone in Wisconsin."

Watch the ad in Ad Watch.

-- By Andy Szal

When the Senate begins budget deliberations, it will work off the budget passed by the Joint Finance Committee, not the document approved by the Assembly last week.

A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker said it makes more sense to use the JFC bill because the Assembly version has not yet been engrossed.

-- By Greg Bump

Senate Democrats will caucus at 1 p.m. today on the budget. A date has yet to be set for a floor session, but a vote on the bill is expected this week.

Senate Republicans are scheduled to caucus at noon Tuesday.

Assembly Majority Leader Tom Nelson sent out a notice of an Assembly floor session for Thursday. A calendar will be released later today.

-- By Greg Bump

With the budget now through the Assembly it heads to the Senate, which could take it up as early as next week.

If the Senate amends the Assembly bill, which is expected, a conference committee would have to be formed to iron out the differences.

Note: A list of the classifications that the Assembly voted to exclude from the early release program can be viewed here. The list is courtesy of GOP Reps. Scott Suder and Joel Kleefisch.

-- By Greg Bump

Dems Ziegelbauer and Krusick voted no. Independent Wood voted yes.

Roll call here.

-- By Greg Bump

In his closing statement, Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald warned the Dems of the consequences of taking ownership of this budget.

"The last four months this has been Governor Doyle's budget," he said. "In the next couple minutes it's going to be your budget. You're voting for the largest tax increase in the history of Wisconsin."

Then he continued.

"But after tomorrow it really starts, because then it's Senator Decker's budget," he said.

-- By Greg Bump

The final amendment is on the floor. Number 131. What Rep. Suder calls the "anti-pork amendment."

It is put on the table 50-48 as some in the front row of the Republican caucus make piggy sounds.

-- By Greg Bump

The vote is 50-48. Dem Reps. Krusick and Ziegelbauer voted no. Independent Rep. Wood voted yes.

UPDATE: 5:02 a.m. -- Now things are moving with alacrity. Now up to amendment 129.

-- By Greg Bump

Changes to the early release provision for some state prisoners has been adopted unanimously by the Assembly.

Rep. Parisi said the amendment would exclude several classes of criminal offense from the early release program, including felony murder, kidnampping and posession of a gun in a school zone. The amendment is number 15 to the Dems' simple amendment 122.

The amendment was co-authored by Rep. Parisi and Rep. Suder. It incorporates a number of categories Suder and Rep. Kleefisch offered earlier in separate amendments. Those amendments were sent to the foot of the calendar by Dems.

Meanwhile several amendments Republicans offered earlier on early release were pulled from the calendar at the request of their authors.

-- By Greg Bump

A big moment here. The Dem simple amendment has arrived. Amendment 122.

There are a dozen GOP amendments, which the Dems are tabling.

UPDATE: 4:31 a.m -- There are now 16 amendments offered to 122. They've moved through 11 so far.

-- By Greg Bump

Tabling amendments. Republicans are limiting their comments. Looks like they may have reached a detente.

-- By Greg Bump

Sounds like they're heading back to the floor soon.

-- By Greg Bump

After moving smoothly through the last several hours, we've hit a snag here.

Republicans are challenging whether the pairing slips Rep. Milroy signed are valid. The most recent use of pairing Milroy was on amendment 110. The vote was on a ruling of the chair to move the motion, which dealt with late term abortion in some way, be moved to the foot of the calendar. It was 49-48, and Milroy was paired with Wood.

Rep. Gottlieb interjected in the proceedings to ask Chief Clerk Patrick Fuller if there was a signed pairing slip from Milroy on that amendment. Fuller said there was.

Then Rep. Gunderson and Rep. Stone took up the issue. Stone said this could ruin in the integrity of the process if a member just had to "leave a stack of signed sheets of paper and somebody else can decide how the vote is going to be cast."

The Republicans called for a caucus at 3:12 a.m. The Dems are also caucusing.

As the room emptied, shouting could be heard. Couldn't see who, but Rep. Barca was tearing into someone pretty good.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly has gotten through 10 amendments since I last checked in.

There has been another amendment -- this one on school funding from Rep. Davis -- that the Dems failed to table, but succeeded in defeating adoption.

There was some talk about late term abortion from Rep. Lemahieu, and about whether there was a "signed pair slip" from the absent Rep. Milroy.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly has passed amendment 100.

While that may seem like a good sign, more than 20 amendments from earlier in the calendar have been moved to the end. And there is still the Dem super amendment, which itself has somehow gathered a dozen substitute amendments. So there's still a long way to go tonight.

-- By Greg Bump

Now up to amendment number 92. No surprises here.

There was a lot of people who thought this would be done by bar time. Or should I say they were hoping it would. Not going to happen.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly is up to amendment 81 now. The mood is positively sedate. Maybe it's the dim lights.

Rep. Vos decided to test the lawmakers. When amendment 80 came up, which he authored, he asked for unanimous consent to make all the members of the Assembly co-authors. Which of course the Dems wouldn't want to do.

There was a moment of confusion before Dems got it.

"I was just checking to see if you guys are actually listening over there," Vos said.

A couple of tired laughs is all the lawmakers could muster.

-- By Greg Bump

The lights in the chamber were dimmed about an hour ago, giving the proceedings the romantic ambiance of a candle-lit dinner.

Well, not really.

Anyway, the reason the lights were lowered a bit because the air conditioning in the chamber isn't working and it was getting uncomfortably warm for some. Thus the dimmed lights.

-- By Greg Bump

The motion to table amendment 73 actually failed. The roll call was 48-50.

The amendment would have required a binding referendum for the Milwaukee RTA. Milwaukee Dems Cullen and Krusick, along with Ziegelbauer and Wood, joined Republicans in voting against tabling.

The session went informal for a few minutes as Dems figured out their next move.

After a few minutes a vote was taken on adoption. In this vote, Wood sided with the Dems against adoption, and the amendment was defeated.

Republicans hooted and howled. They had a ray of hope there, and it was snuffed out.

-- By Greg Bump

Yes, the Assembly keeps chugging along. They're up to amendment 69 now. Nothing has passed yet.

Not much drama lately. Dems move to table, Republicans offer their reasons for why it's important, Dems don't respond, vote is taken. Repeat.

-- By Greg Bump

We've reached midnight, and the lights just dimmed in the chamber. Are they trying to make it more conducive for napping? Or has the state really run out of money?

-- By Greg Bump

The Dems are mixing it up a bit. Instead of the usual tabling motions, they've moved to send a number of these Corrections-related amendments to the foot of the calendar.

Republicans accuse them of not wanting to take votes in public, and vow to take them up at the end of the session.

UPDATE: 11:51 p.m.: Now on amendment 51, and through the Corrections motions, though about a dozen of them were merely moved to the foot of the calendar.

-- By Greg Bump

The calendar has now moved on to amendments on Corrections. There are several being offered by the GOP.

Currently talking about sex offender monitoring. It's amendment 23.

UPDATE: It's tabled, but in a kind of interesting way. For the first time this evening, Rep. Milroy's vote is paired.

So the roll call has Milroy, who is absent, paired with Rep. Wood, Milroy voting "yes" for tabling, Wood voting "no."

Dems Ziegelbauer and Krusick also vote no. So the final tally is 49-48.

-- By Greg Bump

Rep. Jeff Wood has just asked to have his votes changed from "yes" to "no" on amendments 3 and 4.

That won't change the outcome on number 4, but it puts number three at a tie 49-49. Not sure what that means yet ...

Amendment 3 was about the mandates for minimum car insurance coverage.

UPDATE: I've been informed by Rep. Gottlieb, a former Speaker Pro Tem, that when a member changes his or her vote after the roll call it can not change the ultimate outcome of the vote. So the tabling motion stands.

I'm learning more about parliamentary procedure than I ever wished to know.

-- By Greg Bump

We've spent the last half hour or longer on amendments to the budget proposal on the Milwaukee School Choice Program. The Dems have so far stopped them 50-48, with Dem Rep. Ziegelbauer and independent Rep. Wood voting with the Republicans.

-- By Greg Bump

They've moved on in the calendar. Current motion is to table amendment number 10.

UPDATE: 10:05 p.m. -- Moving right along now. Up to amendment number 15. Dems continuing to table the GOP amendments with the help of Wood.

-- By Greg Bump

Rep. Nelson moves to have amendments 8 and 9 moved to the foot of the calendar. Rep. Gottlieb objects. Now we have a good old-fashioned parliamentary dispute.

UPDATE: 9:18 p.m. -- And now we're informal ...

Apparently the deal is this. Amendments 8 and 9 deal with the liability reforms and stewardship, two provisions the Dems modified in their super amendment.

There was talk of making Dems authors on the amendments so they could be voted on separately from the simple amendment and then passed with bipartisan support. But by moving them to the foot of the calendar, they would come after the Dems' simple amendment, which Republicans are going to vote against. So they won't get a chance to register their votes for pulling the liability provisions and changing the stewardship provision.

So the Republicans are not happy about this.

UPDATE 2: Thick in parliamentary muck here.

Rep. Staskunas, the Speaker Pro Tem, puts the motion to put the amendments to the foot of the calendar to a majority vote. Rep. Gottlieb objects, saying it to make changes in the calendar requires a suspension of rules and a two-thirds vote. He says that precedent was established just in the last session.

"If you're going to roll us here and ignore the rules, I guess that's what you're going to do," Gottlieb said.

Talk ensues about Assembly Rules and Jefferson's Rules and Mason's Rules. Staskunas overrules the objection.

Rep. Fitzgerald says Dems' talk of bipartisanship is a bunch of baloney.

"More olive branches, I guess. More olive branches," Fitzgerald says.

Rep. Sheridan says the Republicans are trying to play "gotcha politics," and "the olive branch was out and you decided not to reach back."

The ruling of the chair is appealed ...

Rep. Gunderson says that Dems came to Republicans to ask if they could be co-authors on the two amendments. Republicans agreed.

"We had a deal," Gunderson said.

He said if the Dems backed out, "we can never, ever believe your word."

Sheridan said he wanted to make clear there was no deal.

"There was discussion of a deal. We went and looked it over. We studied it, and decided this was not in our best interest," he said.

In the end, the decision of the chair stands on a 51-47 vote. The 51 Dems voted yes, the 46 Republicans and independent Rep. Wood voted no.

UPDATE 3: 9:48 p.m. -- Informal again. Now bogged down on the vote to move amendment 9 to the foot of the calendar.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Chief Clerk Patrick Fuller says they'll convene in five minutes.

UPDATE: 9:13 p.m.: Fuller calls the roll.

Rep. Gottlieb just stopped by the table and said GOP plans to debate 150 amendments. Said "it could go quick."

-- By Greg Bump

Many are back in their seats, but we are in a slight delay because members have gone out to move their cars, according to the Speaker's office. Tomorrow morning is Farmer's Market on the Capitol Square, and the police have notified the lawmakers that they have to move their cars by 4 a.m.

-- By Greg Bump

The 98-page amendment package can be viewed here.

UPDATE: 8:12 p.m. -- Democrats are out of caucus. GOP said to be moving quickly in theirs.

UPDATE: 8:16 p.m.: Republicans are also out of caucus.

-- By Greg Bump

Both parties have gone into their respective caucuses. They've gotten through the first seven amendments.

-- By Greg Bump

The vote on AA3 was 50-48. Dem Reps. Ziegelbauer and Krusick voted against tabling, but independent Rep. Wood stayed with the Dems.

UPDATE: The vote to table AA4 to delete the QEO repeal passed 51-47. This time Ziegelbauer and Wood voted with the majority Dems, and Rep. Krusick voted with the Repuboicans.

-- By Greg Bump

At the Democratic Party's state convention in Green Bay, State Sen. Dave Hansen, a member of the Joint Finance Committee, said he was disappointed by some of the changes the Assembly Dems have made to the budget he helped craft.

But he said he also understands why they did it.

"We're concerned, but they've got to get to 50 votes," said Hansen, D-Green Bay. "Conversely, we've got to get to 17."

Hansen said Senate Dems will likely meet Monday to review what the Assembly did if the budget makes it out of the chamber this weekend.

He said the big changes his counterparts in the Assembly made to the budget include taking out the joint and several provisions -- which he said were "all about the victims " -- and the alterations to the oil franchise fee.

See more at WisPolitics Dem convention blog here.

-- By Greg Bump

Rep. Jeff Wood, I-Chippewa Falls, voted with the Dems.

Dem Rep. Nick Milroy, is absent due to his wife's hospitalization. With Milroy not able to vote, and Dem Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer's comments that he is unlikely to vote for this budget, it's even more imperative that Dems hold their remaining 50 votes together. (Ziegelbauer voted with his fellow Dems to table the first amendment.)

Wood's yes vote on final passage would give the Dems a little breathing room.

Speaker Sheridan's office says despite Milroy's absence, they still have the 50 they need to pass the bill.

A couple of Republican members waited in mock anticipation as they waited for the vote total to be shown on the big board, and reacted with mock disappointment when it failed.

UPDATE: 6:56 p.m. -- The second amendment from Republicans is tabled on a 51-47 vote. This time Ziegelbauer voted with the Republicans, but Wood stayed with the Dems.

-- By Greg Bump

Now on amendment number 1, from GOP Rep. Mary Williams on a job tax credit.

Dems have moved to table.

Only 119 GOP amendments to go.

-- By Greg Bump

The session has been underway for about an hour now, and members are continuing to offer the opening statements, throwing barbs at the other side.

So far Reps. Sheridan, Nelson, Fitzgerald, Schneider, Pocan, Vos, Rhoades, Kleefisch, Suder, Colon and Kaufert have given their two-cents.

No votes have taken place yet.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Majority Leader Tom Nelson and Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald offered far different viewpoints on this budget.

Nelson said this is a "fair share budget" that asks everyone "to pay their fair share and sacrifice their fair share."

He said the fiscal mess the state is in is due to "8 years of mismanagement in Washington, the Bush-Cheney legacy." Passing a balanced budget would be difficult "no matter what party is in charge."

Nelson, of Kaukauna, said the Dems "reached out time and again" to Republicans for constructive ideas about amending the budget.

"Those entreaties were rejected," he said.

Nelson said the time for "potshots and armchair quarterbacking" is over.

"Give me your alternative," he said. "What is your alternative budget."

Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, termed Nelson's comments "political spin," but said the sacrifices asked of people in this budget go beyond the fair share.

Fitzgerald said the Dem budget will cause property tax bills to soar because of the QEO elimination and re-jiggering of the revenue caps. He said the gas tax and phone tax and garbage tipping fee will directly impact the middle class.

"Let me tell you, people can't give a little bit more," he said.

Fitzgerald said the Democrats are right about this being a historic budget.

"You will vote to pass the largest tax increase in the history of Wisconsin tonight," he said.

Fitzgerald also blasted the earmarks in the budget he said were necessary to help the Dems reach a majority to pass the budget.

"$37 million in earmarks and pork projects to get to 50 (votes)? That's what happened," he said.

As for talk of bipartisanship, Fitzgerald said he would have been willing to consider working with Dems if they had agreed to remove policy items, but they refused.

-- By Greg Bump

Speaker Mike Sheridan opened the session by acknowledging what a difficult week it's been.

"Wow, we're here," said the Janesville Democrat. "It's been a long week ... I didn't know democracy was so hard."

Sheridan said the week was marked by "a lot of great debate" with "a lot of emotion."

"Fourteen years of a lot of pent up needs and wants, things that are near and dear to our hearts," he said.

Sheridan touted the Dems' ability to put together a budget in a dire fiscal time without raising general taxes and still focus on priorities like education and health care. He said Dems made $3.2 billion in cuts in state spending, which he hoped would bring bipartisan support.

"We need to pass a budget tonight," Sheridan said.

Sheridan passed an envelope to raise money for the couple that had to move their wedding from the Assembly chamber today.

Note: Rep. Nick Milroy, D-Superior, is not here. His wife is in the hospital, and he was given leave.

-- By Greg Bump

And the long-awaited Assembly budget debate grinds to a start.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Chief Clerk Patrick Fuller has just announced the Assembly will convene in 10 minutes.

Part of the reason for this delay is that an amendment from Republicans to remove the joint and several liability language from the budget is being re-drafted to include Dem authors. That way it can pass with bipartisan support.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly will come to the floor shortly to begin debating the budget bill. Lawmakers are taking their seats now.

The session will begin with the body taking up the first nine Republican amendments, then break as drafting is finished on the Dems' amendment package and Republicans caucus to look at the proposals.

UPDATE: 4:43 p.m. -- Or not. Most of the Republican members are in their seats and waiting for session to begin, but there are only a handful of Dems in the house so far.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Democrats have finished their closed caucus, according to Speaker Sheridan's office.

They are making one amendment to their amendment package. The enrollment cap on Milwaukee Choice Schools has been moved up to 21,500. Last night they had proposed an amendment capping it at 19,500. The JFC budget kept the cap at the current 22,500.

Drafting on that last change is being finished up, and then the super simple amendment containing the Dem caucus changes will be finalized and handed over the Republicans. The GOP members are expected to go into caucus before coming to the floor.

UPDATE: The amendment can be viewed here.

-- By Greg Bump

Speaker Mike Sheridan's spokeswoman Rebekah Sweeney says that the Dems are finishing up with their caucus soon.

Jim Bender from Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald's office says that as soon as they get the language from the Dems' super simple amendment, they will go to a brief caucus, then head to the floor.

UPDATE: 3:33 p.m. -- Still no sign of Dems' super simple amendment. Meanwhile, Republicans have so far offered up 96 amendments. They are posted on the Assembly InSession site.

-- By Greg Bump

Link to the 61-page summary can be found here.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Democrats have returned to closed caucus following a lunch break.

The amendments they agreed to have been drafted by the Legislative Reference Bureau, but have not yet been turned into the Assembly Chief Clerk's office.

As the hours drag on -- the session was to begin at 10 a.m. -- some are beginning to wonder what the hold up is on turning in their package.

Speaker Mike Sheridan said last night that he is confident the Dems have the votes to pass the bill today. Listen to audio from his press availability here.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Democrats have taken a break from caucus to get some lunch. They're scheduled to come back at 12:45 p.m.

Assembly Republicans continue their caucus to discuss Dem amendments.

-- By Greg Bump

Olga Breunig and Mitch Reible had big plans for the Assembly today, and they had nothing to do with the state budget.

Breunig, of Prairie du Sac, and Reible, of Sauk City, had planned to walk down the aisle at 3:30 this afternoon in the Assembly Chamber. But the floor session to vote on the budget, which was originally planned for Wednesday then moved to Thursday before being scheduled for today, has thwarted their plan.

So the couple will now exchange vows in the Senate, according to Speaker Mike Sheridan's spokeswoman Rebekah Sweeney.

Sheridan and Rep. Steve Hilgenberg, whose district includes the couple's hometowns, are working on a citation to recognize their nuptials. Assembly Dems are passing a hat in caucus for the soon-to-be newlyweds.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly Republicans are continuing their caucus as they wade through the many changes Democrats made to the budget bill passed out of the Joint Finance Committee.

Two areas that are raising a lot of questions among the GOP are school choice and RTAs. No word yet on exactly how many amendments Republicans will offer to counter the Dems.

-- By Greg Bump

The start of today's 10 a.m. Assembly floor session will be delayed.

Democratic amendments, which took three full days to complete, are drafted and in the hands of Republicans. The GOP members are being briefed this morning by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, then may have their own amendments drafted to the Democratic package.

Democrats are also caucusing.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan just gave a quick press availability outside his office, and he said majority Democrats have the votes they need to pass the budget through their house.

"We've got to have 50 votes to pass the budget, so at the end of the day we feel confident we're going to be able to pass a budget," Sheridan said.

Sheridan said he opted to postpone the floor session until tomorrow to give Republicans a chance to review the amendments Democrats made over the last three days of caucus, and to give his caucus members a break.

"Our folks have worked so hard this week. We started out here Monday, and as you know there were a lot of early mornings and late nights. I'm proud of the work that they did," he said.

"We all grew a lot this week, and I think the citizens and the families of this state should be relieved that we protected (them)," Sheridan said.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald said he doesn't expect any Republican votes in his house to pass the budget.

"I don't think there's a lot of support for it right now," he said.

Fitzgerald added that he has not seen the Dems' full amendment to the bill or got a briefing on its fiscal effects, but he said the 6.5 percent spending increase and new taxes would deter GOP support.

"It's just the wrong direction to head in when we're in the worst recession in 60 years," he said.

The GOP caucus will be briefed on the Dem amendments by the LFB at 9 a.m., then they may draft their own amendments.

-- By Greg Bump

Rep. Fred Kessler, D-Milwaukee, said the Democrats have the 50 votes needed to pass the budget bill.

"I'm voting for the budget," Kessler said, after another full day of caucusing with his colleagues. "I believe we have the requisite number of votes to pass the budget."

Kessler made the comments after the Dems broke caucus at about 8 p.m. He said the main issue he wanted to see fixed in the bill was the funding mechanism for Milwaukee Choice schools, and while he didn't get all that he wanted, he said the compromise that passed the caucus was enough to get his support.

Kessler said the Assembly Dem amendment would impose a cap of 19,500 on enrollment at the schools. The budget passed by the JFC held the cap steady at 22,500 students.

See the amendment, plus an amendment to the JFC action on bilingual education here.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly will meet tomorrow at 10 a.m. to vote on the budget, Speaker Mike Sheridan said minutes ago.

-- By Greg Bump

GOP Rep. Mike Huebsch is predicting it will be at least midnight before the Assembly is on the floor and ready to vote on the budget.

Democrats remain in caucus, and once they break caucus they'll have to have their amendments drafted.

Following that Republicans will have to take a look at what the Dems did, get briefed about the changes by LFB, then have their own amendments drafted.

Meanwhile, here's an LFB memo Huebsch requested on the potential effects of reduced enrollment in the Milwaukee Choice program on public K-12 school districts.

-- By Greg Bump

The latest amendment to flow from the Assembly Dem caucus revamps the jobs tax credit. See the amendment here.

See a press release from the Assembly Dems on the amendment here.

The Dems continue to meet in closed caucus, now working on potential amendments to the Milwaukee School Choice program.

Assembly Republicans finished up their amendment work over an hour ago. They will be briefed by the LFB on the Dems' proposed changes to the JFC budget before they come to the floor.

-- By Greg Bump

Sen. Judy Robson is "deeply disappointed" that the University of Wisconsin-Madison lobbied against a provision she put into the budget during Joint Finance to build a new nursing school on the campus.

The Assembly Democrats passed an amendment last night to pull the provision after the UW lobbied against it's inclusion.

"I am deeply disappointed that the University has not gone to bat to keep this provision in the budget and in fact has lobbied heavily against it," she said.

"We have an opportunity at our flagship campus to recruit and graduate more nurse educators to teach in nursing programs across the state. With more nursing faculty, we will be able to enroll more nursing students, graduate more nurses, put dislocated workers back to work, give our economy a boost, and improve the quality of health care each of us receives. This is an opportunity the University should embrace. They seem to have strayed from the Wisconsin Idea mission of improving people's lives beyond the university."

See the press release here.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Democrats have just sent out a fresh batch of amendments from their closed caucus, which I will post in a second. But the most noteworthy appears to be one amending the JFC's provision on the 75-cent phone user fee to create a police and fire protection fund.

The amendment approved by the caucus creates a segregated fund for the fees so the money will go directly to shared revenue.

I'll have the rest of the batch momentarily.

UPDATE: The other amendments, 11 in all, can be found here.

-- By Greg Bump

Rep. Cory Mason said the changes made in an amendment to regional transit authority provisions in the state budget were made after conferring with Federal Transit Administration officials about Joint Finance Committee's action.

The JFC's action included modifying Gov. Jim Doyle's recommendation to create an RTA to serve Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee. But the JFC split off the two smaller cities, creating a Milwaukee RTA.

But FTA officials told Mason and Rep. Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, that an authority would have to encompass Racine and Kenosha in addition to Milwaukee.

"It needs to be an umbrella for the region," Mason said.

That new transit authority would be called the Southeast RTA.

Additionally, the three cities needed to commit to improving their bus systems "because they're not going to run a train to communities where when you get off the train, there's no transit to plug into."

Mason said the amendment "creates avenues to fix the buses" in the three cities.

Under the amendment, the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail line would be funded by a $16 car rental tax, as approved by the JFC earlier. But the amendments adds another $2 to the tax, $1 for the city of Racine and $1 for the city of Kenosha, to improve their bus systems. But the cities can only get the money if they match it, Mason said.

The amendment also creates a Milwaukee Transit Authority, and gives the Milwaukee County Board the option to create a 0.65 cents tax to pay for it. Of that tax, 0.50 cents would go toward transit operations, and the remaining 0.15 cents would go toward offsetting police and fire costs in communities in Milwaukee County.

In order to take full advantage of federal dollars available for RTAs, applications have to be in by September, Mason said.

The RTA issue has caused consternation among some Senate Democrats, including Racine Sen. John Lehman. But Mason said he had"a very positive conversation" with Lehman about the changes the amendment makes.

"Getting this done is critically important for Racine and the region," Mason said, citing the 17 percent unemployment rate in his hometown. "If we're going to recover economically we have to plug into the region."

-- By Greg Bump

An amendment passed by the Assembly Dem caucus would prohibit the DATCP from using a per-head based slaughter fee. The amendment allows the agency to work with the meat industry to find a fee mechanism.

The other amendments released deal with wastewater permits for concentrated animal feeding operations a lapse from SEG funding for county land conservation staff.

See the amendments here.

-- By Greg Bump

Gov. Jim Doyle said that Assembly Democrats have thus far maintained the "real big issue" in the state budget throughout their amendment process -- limiting tax increases while maintaining health care and education.

The governor, speaking in Green Bay after President Obama's speech on health care reform, said he would "see what comes to my desk" with regard to the specific amendments. He credited the president's federal stimulus legislation with helping absolve the state of many drastic cuts.

Doyle said that without stimulus funding, the state could have been forced to cut schools "probably by 15 percent," along with greater cuts to health care.

"They're probably going to be pretty small," Doyle said of the budget's final cuts to schools.

-- By Andy Szal

Assembly Democrats and Republicans are holding caucuses right now, and a 1 p.m. start time looks highly unlikely.

Speaker Sheridan spokeswoman Rebekah Sweeney said the Dems are still discussing amendments and among the issues still to be worked through are provisions regarding the Milwaukee School Choice program.

Meanwhile, the Republicans are finalizing amendments and will also need time to look over the many Dem changes.

Some Republican amendments are already posted at the Assembly InSession site.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Republicans asked for a brief caucus before the chamber votes on SB 232 to swap out GPR for federal stimulus money in the current fiscal year to ensure the state has a positive balance on June 30.

But they've now been meeting for more than an hour. We'll keep you updated.

UPDATE: We have a quorum call.

UPDATE 2: The bill passes 76-22. Here's the roll call.

Both sides are now meeting in caucus.

-- By JR Ross

The speaker's office has released corrected language of three amendments the Dem caucus approved last night.

They pertain to:

renewable energy

base revenue for schools

the Milwaukee Area Workforce Reinvestment Board

-- By JR Ross

Assembly Democrats have come to an agreement on an amendment to the budget bill that would create regional transit authorities in the Fox Valley and Chippewa Valley.

The amendment would also allow Dane County to use funds raised from the 0.5 percent RTA sales tax increase to fund road and highway projects.

It further modifies the language for the KRM and Milwaukee RTA to "put these motions in a position where they are more likely to be approved by the Federal Transportation Authority."

In addition, the final batch of motions includes several "targeted investments" for various Assembly districts. They include earmarks for Reps. Danou, Hubler, Jorgensen, Milroy, Molepske, Radcliffe, Schneider, Steinbrink, and Van Akkeren.

Two other amendments target tax credits for enterprise zones and an expansion of the research and development tax credit.

See the amendments here.

And they're not done. According to Sheridan's spokeswoman, more amendments will be discussed at caucus tomorrow.

The plan for the Assembly is to convene at 10 a.m., vote on SB 232, then move into partisan caucuses.

-- By Greg Bump

Still to come, according to Speaker Sheridan's office, are amendments on regional transit authorities, business tax credits, and targeted investments.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly Democrats have finished their caucus. The Assembly is scheduled to begin a floor session at 10 a.m. today.

Today's session will begin with a vote on SB 232, which will replace $261 million in GPR for school funding with federal stimulus funds. After that, the Assembly is expected to break for a few hours for partisan caucus, then return to vote on the budget.

We've got four new amendments ready now, and more should be on the way shortly.

Among the latest batch released is an amendment to delete a provision to require school districts to give rides to pregnant students, one for a $500,000 grant for Madison schools for its 4-year-old kindergarten program, one reversing the JFC action on the suspension of driver's license, and one regarding PCB removal from the Fox River.

See those amendments here.

UPDATE: 12:32 a.m. -- Four more amendments can be found here. This batch deals with changes to the PSC's fuel cost recovery structure, the renewable energy grant formula, language regarding Employee Trust Funds, and a base revenue hold harmless amendment.

-- By Greg Bump

Three new amendments have been passed through the pipeline from the Assembly Dem caucus.

One amendment deletes the JFC's action regarding legal notices in the official state newspaper and requests that the Legislative Council form a study committee to look into the use the Internet for posting legal notices.

The second restores $336,000 in funding for the biennium to the Marquette University Dental School.

The third makes some changes to language of the home foreclosure amendment.

See these latest amendments here.

-- By Greg Bump

They've finished their break, and are now back at it.

UPDATE: 10:53 p.m. -- We've got two new amendments from the caucus, one regarding the UW Nursing School, the other the Dept. of Veteran Affairs Veteran's Volunteer Fund. See the amendments here.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly Dems have reached agreement on three more amendments.

One amendment would provide legislative oversight to the Dept. of Health Services plan to find $550 million in unspecified savings in the Medicaid program.

The second would fully index the homestead tax credit formula to inflation.

The last will increase funding for the Milwaukee Area Workforce Reinvestment Board by $1.5 million. The City of Milwaukee will match the $1.5 million.

See the amendments here.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Democrats are currently taking a break from caucus to have member-to-member meetings. They're expected to return to work in about 45 minutes.

Speaker Sheridan spokeswoman Rebekah Sweeney said the caucus still has a number of amendments to discuss tonight.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly Dems have made some modifications to a provision in the JFC budget to mandate insurance companies provide coverage for the treatment of autism.

The amendment, co-authored by Rep. Kim Hixson and Rep. Dave Cullen, sets minimum coverage standards for the treatment of autism. See the amendment here.

The Democrats remain in closed caucus.

A bill to mandate coverage for autism treatment has been proposed in the Legislature in this legislative session and in the the previous session. It was not originally part of Gov. Jim Doyle's budget plan -- though he is a supporter of the bill -- but was added at the very end of the JFC process.

The amendment is significant because Hixson was a leader in the fight to get the separate bill passed, and Cullen is chair of the committee overseeing the bill. Cullen was not pleased that the mandate was included in the budget, and said its inclusion may lead him to vote against the whole bill.

-- By Greg Bump

See the amendment here.

The amendment, authored by Rep. Jen Shilling, establishes a 2 percent flat rate for sale of all motor vehicle fuels.

It eliminates the anti-pass through language included in previous provisions, and leaves it up to the wholesaler to decide whether to absorb the cost of the tax or add it on to the cost of a gallon. Under the amendment, that increase from the wholesaler could not exceed 4-cents per gallon.

The amended tax generates the same amount of revenue -- $260 million over the biennium -- to fund transportation projects as the previous proposals.

"This is a way for us to be on sound legal ground because it eliminates the anti-pass through language, but it also establishes a ceiling," said Speaker Sheridan spokeswoman Rebekah Sweeney.

UPDATE: Fifteen organizations who expressed concerns with the governor's oil profits tax proposal say the changes made by Assembly Dems are a "significant improvement. See their memo here.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly Democrats continue their closed caucus as they wade through budget provisions in advance of a scheduled floor session tomorrow.

The latest update from Speaker Mike Sheridan's office is that the caucus has voted not to alter budget provisions passed by the JFC to repeal the qualified economic offer for public school teachers.

In addition, the Assembly Dems won't modify the provision on primary enforcement of seatbelts, which gives law enforcement the ability to stop motorists for not wearing their seatbelt. Currently a seatbelt violation can not be the primary reason for a traffic stop.

When the JFC voted on the provision in April, the committee decided to keep the forfeiture amount for a seatbelt violation at the current $10, not $25 as Gov. Doyle had recommended.

The "primary enforcement" measure is one that the federal government has been pushing for, and the state could claim an additional $15 million in highway funds from the feds for passing it.

-- By Greg Bump

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Milwaukee Co. Exec. Scott Walker and two legislators today panned a Joint Finance Committee-approved plan for regional transportation authorities.

State Sen. Jeff Plale, D-South Milwaukee, said there is a “great amount of consternation about the way the JFC cobbled together the RTA provision.”

“It's like they put Frankenstein together but used all the bad pieces,” Plale quipped to about 180 people attending a WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com forum on the future of southeastern Wisconsin transportation.

The plan is now before majority Assembly Democrats but could get changed during the final weeks of the process making the budget for the next two years.

See more in Milwaukee Notes.

-- By David Wise

The Wisconsin Association for Justice praises the Assembly Democrats for keeping provisions on mandatory minimums for auto insurance coverage, but pans the decision to remove joint and several.

The Wisconsin Civil Justice Council and the Wisconsin Medical Society are applauding the removal of joint and several.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Democrats have decided to restore $5.4 million in budget cuts to the Department of Justice.

An amendment offered by 19 Democrats, including Speaker Mike Sheridan, JFC co-chair Mark Pocan, and JFC members Pedro Colon and Cory Mason, was passed by a show of hands in closed caucus.

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has pursued a media campaign against the proposed cuts to DOJ in the Joint Finance Committee version of the budget.

"We are committed to ensuring that our state's top law enforcement agency has the tools and resources it needs to keep our citizens safe, and we were pleased to work with Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen in a bipartisan way to make this budget even stronger for Wisconsin's public safety," Sheridan said in a statement.

See the press release here.

See the amendment here.

See Pocan's statement here.

See AG Van Hollen's statement here.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Republicans have sent their first nine proposed amendments to the budget for drafting.

The topics include amendments to the JFC's action on the jobs tax credit (authored by Rep. Mary Williams), tech college worker retraining (Rep. Bies), auto insurance minimum coverage mandates (Rep. Nygren), the LearnFare program (Rep. Honadel), two amendments to the prevailing wage proposal (Rep. Gottlieb), contributory negligence/joint and several (Rep. Zipperer) and stewardship (Rep. Gunderson).

Though the two latter proposals are being modified by Assembly Dems, the GOP will still move the amendments, according to Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald's office.

Here are the budget amendment statements from the GOP members:

Rep. Gunderson on stewardship

Rep. Honadel on LearnFare

Rep. Nygren, Zipperer on liability law changes

Rep. Nygren on auto insurance

Rep. Williams on jobs tax credit

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Dems voted today to take the proposed changes to joint and several liability out of the budget, according to Rebekah Sweeney, spokeswoman for Speaker Mike Sheridan.

The governor had included a provision in his budget that would allow someone as little as 1 percent liable for someone's injuries to have to pay up to 100 percent of the damages. JFC amendmed that provision to put the threshhold at 20 percent liable before someone could have to pay all the damages.

Sweeney said the caucus also decided to stay with the JFC position on mandatory minimums on auto insurance coverage and its position on medical record fees.

Asked if the revisions were getting the Assembly Dems closer to the 50 votes needed to pass the budget bill, Sweeney said she couldn't speculate.

"We're working to address the concerns of members and their constituents," Sweeney said. "We will continue to work through this afternoon and probably this evening to get through all the issues."

UPDATE: Reps. Terry Van Akkeren of Sheboygan and Fred Clark of Baraboo have been added as a co-authors to the amendment.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Majority Leader Tom Nelson has sent notice that the Assembly will be on the floor tomorrow at 10 a.m. Speaker Mike Sheridan's spokeswoman Rebekah Sweeney said the Assembly will take up both SB 232 and the budget bill at that time.

The body has to take up SB 232 to shift $261 million in federal stimulus cash into school aid payments and then require the Department of Public Instruction to lapse the same amount in GPR into the general fund. The accounting maneuver allows the state to end the current fiscal year with a positive fund balance of $70 million.

The Senate approved the bill yesterday, and for it to work it needs to get through the Legislature.

Speculation has continued over whether Assembly Democrats have the 50 votes needed to pass the budget. Many budget watchers say they believe Dem leaders are close, though there are many controversial issues they have to work through today before it's a go.

The 10 a.m. notice could be an indication leadership is confident they'll have the votes, or it could be the Assembly will come in to pass the school funding bill, then the Dems could go back to caucus to continue to work toward 50 votes.

UPDATE: The Assembly Dems have passed three more amendments to the budget in caucus. The amendments were passed on voice vote or show of hands, Sweeney said.

The amendments include a 30 percent residency requirement for workers on MPS construction projects, alterations to the language on the Freight Rail Preservation program, and changes to allow access to the Disability Ombudsman program to participants in the DHS' IRIS program.

The amendments were proposed by Reps. Annette Polly Williams, Steve Hilgenberg and Peggy Krusick, respectively.

See the amendments here.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly Democratic caucus was open for about two minutes today as the session moved quickly to close so the members could discuss "controversial" budget items.

The expectation is the caucus will be closed for most of the day, but updates will be provided about amendments the Dems are considering.

GOP Rep. Dean Kaufert of Neenah made an appearance at the caucus.

"I heard you might need me," Kaufert joked to the Dems.

Kaufert left when the session was closed. When he stopped to talk to a couple of reporters, he had order sheets for his trophy and engraving business in his hand. He said he was upstairs to talk about name tag engraving.

Kaufert, a moderate whom some have speculated may be a Republican the Dems could try to pick off if they didn't have enough votes in their own caucus, said he hasn't been approached by the majority about voting for the budget. And he doesn't expect to be.

"There would have to be too many changes," he said.

But Kaufert said he doesn't think the Dems have the 50 necessary to pass the bill, yet.

"I know they don't (have enough)," he said. "But they're going to get there."

-- By Greg Bump

The JFC-approved budget would increase taxes and fees $2.1 billion with another $132.1 million in additional revenue expected through "enhanced collection measures," according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

LFB compiled the analysis at the request of multiple lawmakers.

The biggest proposed tax hikes include the oil franchise fee, the hospital assessment, the cigarette tax, the reduction in the capital gains exclusion and the new tax bracket for individuals making $225,000 a year and couples making $300,000 annually.

See the memo here.

LFB also projects the state would have a structural deficit of almost $2.3 billion heading into the 2011-13 budget, under the JFC proposal.

That's up from the estimated $1.6 billion structural deficit under Gov. Jim Doyle's proposal from February, prior to the deficit exploding to $6.6 billion.

By comparison, LFB noted the largest structural deficit of the past decade was the almost $2.9 billion shortfall going into the 2003-05 biennium.

See the memo here.

In addition, LFB has a new breakdown of the shared revenue cuts each municipality faces under the JFC budget.

Generally, more affluent areas of the state face the largest cuts as a percentage of the aid they receive, with many of them looking at a reduction of 15 percent.

For example, Madison would lose $1.1 million, a cut of 15 percent of the aid it now receives, while Milwaukee would lose $2.6 million of the $229.9 million it received for 2009 under current law, a reduction of 1.1 percent.

See the breakdown here.

-- By WisPolitics staff

While Assembly Dems did not come back into open caucus tonight, they did vote on four more budget provisions, a spokeswoman for Speaker Sheridan says.

The caucus made no change to the prevailing wage provisions JFC approved in its version of the budget and deleted committee amendment to repeal the requirement that stewardship lands have to be open to outdoor recreation, including hunting, fishing and trapping. Outdoorsmen had raised concerns they would no longer have access to those lands if the provision becomes law.

The caucus also voted to keep open all 24 Department of Natural Resources service centers that the governor had proposed closing. Freshman Rep. Mark Radcliffe of Black River Falls raised strong objections to the proposed closings in his district.

The committee also voted to delete the JFC proposal on property tax exemptions for certain low-income and senior housing. Madison members of the Assembly wanted the JFC provision to address some concerns over taxes on some non-profit housing in the city.

Sheridan spokeswoman Rebekah Sweeney said the caucus plans to reconvene at 10 a.m. tomorrow, but it was unclear if Dems will meet in open caucus or continue to work behind closed doors when they come back.

UPDATE: See last night's amendments here.

-- By JR Ross

Assembly Dems continue to meet at this hour, and it's looking like they won't be back in open caucus until tomorrow morning.

A spokeswoman for Speaker Mike Sheridan said the caucus is expected to continue meeting tonight behind closed doors before meeting in the open some time tomorrow morning.

-- By JR Ross

Assembly Dems broke about 7 p.m. for dinner and headed back into closed caucus around 7:30 p.m.

Still no word on when they will open things back up and start voting on amendments again.

-- By JR Ross

Assembly Dems have completed their first round of budget amendments and have gone back to closed caucus.

The caucus is breaking up amendments into a series of packages and voting on them via voice vote. Leaders said they'll do a show of hands if there's any question as to whether an amendment has the support of a majority of members, but so far that hasn't been a problem.

The first batch includes pulling items from the budget to alter the regulation of fireworks and to allow non-profit organizations to provide beer and wine for free at fundraising events without requiring them to obtain a municipal license.

Those two amendments were part of package four, which also includes altering a provision of the state smoking ban to include the sale of cigarettes in the list of products that count toward figuring out if a retail establishment counts as a "retail tobacco store." Rep. Colón, who sponsored the tobacco provision, joked it was the "sin" package.

Other changes include lifting the cap on how much a literacy program provider can receive under the state's program, adding a new check-off on state income tax forms for food pantries and clarifying the tax status of the Presbyterian Student Center Foundation in Madison.

The caucus is expected to remain closed for a couple of hours while members debate the next batch of amendments. We're awaiting an outline of the topics for the next packages and will get that up as soon as we can.

UPDATE: We now have the five packages scanned.

-- By JR Ross

Senate Democrats were largely quiet during their budget briefing caucus with LFB staff this afternoon.

Before LRB director Bob Lang began his presentation, caucus chairman John Lehman of Racine asked Lang to summarize the JFC budget compared to the 2007-2009 budget.

Lang told the caucus that JFC cut Gov. Doyle's proposed all funds spending by more than half, and that GPR spending was decreased by about 3.2 percent. He noted that the all funds spending increase was due in large part to an infusion of federal stimulus funds.

"We need to defend or refute some numbers that are out there" when talking to our constituents, Lehman said.

Senate Republicans are also in caucus on the budget this afternoon, but have moved into closed session.

-- By Andy Szal

Caucus Chair Peter Barca warned fellow Assembly Dems they had a long day ahead of them as today's meeting got underway.

Barca said the plan was to meet in closed caucus for about two hours to discuss budget amendments before breaking for lunch and to allow time for drafting. Dems will then come back in open caucus to vote on the amendments.

Barca also said the two-hour guess for closed caucus was dependent upon members keeping their remarks brief as he said they largely did yesterday during caucus.

To lighten things up, Rep. Jen Shilling, a member of JFC, read a spoof of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" that she wrote. It was "'Twas the Week of the Budget." It included a line that Dems met "with hopes that 50 votes would soon be there."

See Shilling's poem here.

-- By JR Ross

Assembly Republicans -- some of whom may be needed to pass the state budget out of the chamber later this week -- are being briefed by Legislative Fiscal Bureau staff on the JFC version of the budget today.

The GOP lawmakers, joined by RPW chairman Reince Priebus and executive director Mark Jefferson, met in open caucus this morning to discuss the LFB summary of AB 75.

Rep. Mike Huebsch of West Salem asked LFB director Bob Lang to assess the pattern of using segregated fees and program revenues to complement general purpose revenue in recent budgets, arguing that, "GPR is not what it once was." Democrats are touting a 3.2 percent decrease in GPR spending in the JFC budget; Huebsch said that all funds have to be considered when comparing budgets.

Lang said that other funds to play a larger role in the budget process, but cautioned that much of that spending in the 2009-2011 budget derives from federal stimulus funds.

"You really need to look at all funds to compare this budget to previous budgets," Huebsch said. "It is fair for us to out and say, 'This budget increases spending over the previous budget by 6.3 percent.'"

Republicans also took on SB 232, passed this morning by Joint Finance, which moves stimulus money for school aids in the next biennium into this fiscal year's spending. Rep. Robin Vos of Caledonia noted that the bill, if passed, moves the JFC budget's proposed GPR spending from a 3.2 percent decrease to a 2.3 percent decrease.

Lang told Rep. Kitty Rhoades of Hudson that SB 232 constitutes another "adjustment" to the current fiscal year's budget.

"Is there a record as to how many budget adjustment bills are done under one session?" Rhoades asked.

"The longest one of Gov. Doyle's budgets has lasted is seven months," replied Rep. Phil Montgomery, R-Ashwaubenon.


-- By Andy Szal

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau has released three papers looking at aspects of the budget as passed by the Joint Finance Committee.

In one, it totals $2.1 billion in new taxes and fees in the JFC-approved budget with another $132.1 million in additional revenue expected through “enhanced collection measures.”

The biggest proposed tax hikes include the oil franchise fee, the hospital assessment, the cigarette tax, the reduction in the capital gains exclusion and the new tax bracket for individuals making $225,000 a year and couples making $300,000 annually.

See the memo.

LFB also projects the state would have a structural deficit of almost $2.3 billion heading into the 2011-13 budget, under the JFC proposal.

That’s up from the estimated $1.6 billion structural deficit under Gov. Jim Doyle's proposal from February, prior to the deficit exploding to $6.6 billion.

By comparison, LFB noted the largest structural deficit of the past decade was the almost $2.9 billion shortfall going into the 2003-05 biennium.

See the memo.

LFB also has a new breakdown of the shared revenue cuts each municipality faces under the JFC budget.

Generally, more affluent areas of the state face the largest cuts as a percentage of the aid they receive, with many of them looking at a reduction of 15 percent.

For example, Madison would lose $1.1 million, a cut of 15 percent of the aid it now receives, while Milwaukee would lose $2.6 million of the $229.9 million it received for 2009 under current law, a reduction of 1.1 percent.

See the breakdown.

Assembly Dems have delayed their caucus until 11:30 a.m.

A spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan says Dems plan to close the caucus after about 15 minutes to begin debating amendments. Once those amendments have been drafted, they expect to return to open caucus to vote on them.

The spokeswoman said to expect "a long day."

-- By JR Ross

The Assembly has put off tomorrow's vote on the state budget.

Majority Leader Tom Nelson told reporters this morning after the Rules Committee met that the Assembly would not be in until Thursday.

Asked if the delay was related to a death in the family of Dem Rep. Ann Hraychuck, D-Balsam Lake, Speaker Mike Sheridan said that information would be available later this morning.

Sheridan's office confirmed the Assembly would now vote Thursday on the budget.

-- By WisPolitics Staff

The state Department of Justice faces a much smaller cut in GPR and all funds than the $17 million Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen publicized last week in criticizing the JFC budget, according to the Fiscal Bureau summary released today.

But a DOJ spokesman said the summary doesn't tell the full story of the damage the attorney general contends the Dem-run committee inflicted upon the agency.

According to LFB, the JFC budget would cut the agency $7 million in GPR compared to the base year doubled, a reduction of 8.3 percent. The reduction in all funds would be almost $3.9 million, equal to a 2.1 percent cut.

Still, DOJ spokesman Kevin St. John said the analysis fails to capture the full extent of the proposed cuts to the agency. For example, JFC included a provision to transfer $1 million from the DOJ budget to pay for raises for assistant district attorneys and public defenders. Under the LFB analysis, that money actually up as an increase in the DOJ budget.

There's also another $1 million listed in increased spending for the Wisconsin Statewide Information Center. That program is funded by federal dollars but wasn't counted under the budget in years past, St. John said.

He pointed to the 8.3 percent GPR cut as evidence that JFC treated the agency in a partisan manner considering overall GPR funding for the entire budget was reduced just 3.2 percent. JFC also cut DOJ deeper compared to Gov. Jim Doyle's proposal than other agencies.

See Van Hollen's statement on the LFB analysis here.

JFC Co-Chair Mark Pocan, D-Madison, countered the LFB numbers back up the Dems' contention that the AG is has been misleading the public.

"I can pretty much tell the attorney general wasn't a math major," Pocan said. "We've been saying this since day one. The cuts he's been coming up with don't match what's in the budget or what's in reality."

Pocan said Van Hollen totaled up all the cuts JFC approved without taking into account the new money pumped into the agency.

He also said Assembly Dems plan to make one change to the DOJ budget once it hits the floor of the full body.

The language on the $1 million to cover raises for assistant DAs and public defenders requires DOJ to transfer the money. Dems plan an amendment to give Van Hollen the authority to transfer the money without requiring him to do so.

Pocan said Van Hollen had indicated the raises were a priority of his, and the committee had meant to accommodate him.

-- By JR Ross

Assembly Democrats are not expected to re-open their budget caucus today, according to a spokeswoman from Speaker Mike Sheridan's office.

The Dems discussed the process for voting on the state budget and the timeline for a vote, Rebekah Sweeney said this afternoon. As of now, there have been no changes to the plan to vote on Wednesday, she said. The caucus was expected to break up at about 6:30 tonight.

The Dems will return to caucus at 11 a.m. tomorrow to vote on amendments, Sweeney said. Much of tomorrow's caucus will be open.

-- By Greg Bump

A new radio ad from the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association says the proposed transpo budget will help struggling communities.

Jeff Parisi, president of the organization, is featured in the spot. He says the state is "literally on the road to recovery" thanks to stimulus money, the governor and the Legislature.

The spot began running today in Wisconsin's major markets, according to the group.

Listen to the spot at AdWatch.

Meanwhile, a poll commissioned by the Club for Growth Wisconsin and the Independent Business Association of Wisconsin reports that 59 percent of voters in southeastern Wisconsin oppose plans to build the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail line. The survey of 500 likely voters was conducted on June 3 and 4, 2009 and has a margin of error 5.8 percent.

See the Club for Growth press release here.

-- By Greg Bump

The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO sent an email to members today urging them to let legislators know of their support for the prevailing wage provision in the state budget.

The email reads: "We are glad to report that much-needed reforms to our state prevailing wage law are included in the proposed 2009-2011 Biennial State Budget that will be voted on in the State Assembly this week. These reforms will strengthen enforcement of the law and expand prevailing wage to cover more workers and more projects funded with public dollars."

The email includes a link to an online petition at the One Wisconsin Now Web site.

-- By Greg Bump

The LFB analysis shows that all funds spending in the 2009-11 biennium will increase by about $3.7 billion (6.3 percent) over the base year doubled, but general purpose revenue spending will decrease by about $905 million (3.2 percent).

All funds spending in the proposed bill is $62.2 billion for 2009-11, compared to the base year doubled figure of $58.5 billion. GPR spending is proposed at $27.5 billion, compared to $28.4 billion in the base year doubled.

General fund tax collections for 2009-11 are projected to be $25.1 billion. Roughly half of that figure comes from income tax collections, estimated to be just less than $12.6 billion. Sales tax collections for the upcoming biennium are expected to be $8.4 billion.

-- By Greg Bump

Rep. Kelda Helen Roys, D-Madison, has proposed an amendment to the budget bill that would restore nearly $4 million in state grants for 4-year-old kindergarten programs.

Roys proposes using funds used for student transportation to public and private schools to restore the funding for the 4K programs.

See Roys' press release for details.

UPDATE: Roys has proposed a second amendment to alter the budget so state agencies would have to determine whether furloughing an employee would result in a net savings.

"A blanket furlough of all state workers may, in some cases, actually end up increasing the cost to state taxpayers," Roys says in a press release.

"Some examples of this include workers whose furlough times will need to be staffed by other workers at overtime pay rates (time and a half or more), workers whose positions are funded by federal or non-GPR dollars, and workers whose positions bring money into the state through matching funds based on the hours they work, like university researchers."

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Democrats closed their caucus shortly after convening today, with caucus chairman Peter Barca saying that they will discuss the issues that were brought up during a budget briefing last week.

Rep. Barca said the caucus won't be taking any votes on amendments today, but will be back at 10 a.m. tomorrow and likely taking votes on amendments in the morning.

Barca said the meeting will continue until about 6 p.m. today and then break for a caucus dinner. Some parts of today's meeting may again be opened up to the public.

-- By Greg Bump

You can view the comparative analysis of the budget actions undertaken by the Joint Finance Committee and those recommended in Gov. Jim Doyle's original budget plan here.

-- By Greg Bump

Responding to a column from Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen makes his case for why the Department of Justice should be exempt from cuts other state agencies have seen.

"Senator Russ Decker claims that 'no other state agency has been given as many additional resources as the Department of Justice in the past few years.' This isn't true," Van Hollen writes. "Indeed, one need only go back two budget cycles to find out that the percentage increase in the Department of Justice's budget has been less than all state spending over that four year period (about 3.1 percent per year compounded compared to about 4.3 percent per year)."

See Van Hollen's column here.

-- By Greg Bump

The Joint Finance Committee will meet in executive session at 9 a.m. tomorrow to vote on a bill that would direct the Department of Public Instruction to lapse an additional $261.3 million into the general fund and use an identical amount in federal recovery act money to make annual payments to school districts this month. (Senate Bill 232)

Meanwhile, the Assembly Democratic caucus that was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. today has been moved back to a noon start due to members travel schedules.

-- By Greg Bump

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker says in a column that Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has not lived up to his campaign promise to do more with less.

Decker, D-Weston, writes: "Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has been complaining that the Department of Justice is being treated differently in the budget process than other state agencies. And he is absolutely right.

"No other state agency has been given as many additional resources as the Department of Justice over the last few years."

See the column here.

-- By Greg Bump

The Wisconsin State Attorneys Association, which represents state legal staff including more than 80 assistant attorneys general, has sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker and Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan imploring them to restore budget cuts to the Department of Justice.

WSAA President Ken Duren says the cuts will adversely effect the DOJ's ability to handle vital duties and case loads, and he assured the leaders that the effort was not being directed by the administration of Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

"Our members are motivated not by partisan politics, currying favor with anyone or through some misplaced exaggerated fear," but dedication to the core principles of public safety and service to the state, Duren writes.

See the letter here.

-- By Greg Bump

The LFB passed out a memo to Assembly Dems breaking down the fiscal effect of the JFC budget compared to Gov. Jim Doyle's original proposal.

The changes in the JFC increased the state's net balance by $1.375 billion, according to the memo.

See the memo from LFB here.

-- By Greg Bump

The Madison school board asked lawmakers to restore grants to help districts start up 4-year-old kindergarten.

In a letter to lawmakers today, the school board argues that the establishment of a 4K program is put at risk without the grants.

The board argued children living in poverty would be particularly impacted by the cuts to funding the program. With the number of elementary-age children living in poverty in the Madison Metropolitan School District increasing by 19 percentage points since 1999, catering to the needs of all students requires greater support from the state.

The school board is "dismayed" voucher schools in Milwaukee can still start a 4K program in September and receive reimbursement from the state at the end of that school year, while public schools will not be provided with similar resources for their own 4K programs.

The board urges legislators to reinstate the 4K start-up grants in the second year of the biennium. Madison does not have 4-year-old kindergarten, but has been studying whether to start.

"Without start-up resources offered through the grant, our plans to establish a 4K program are seriously jeopardized," the board wrote in the letter.

Read the letter here.

-- By Peter Kourkoubis

Dem Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer is circulating a co-sponsorship memo for amendments to the budget bill. Ziegelbauer, of Manitowoc, said this week that he would be a very likely no vote on the budget unless there were major changes.

The changes Ziegelbauer wants to see, according to his co-sponsorship memo, are to provisions on collective bargaining for public school employees, domestic partner benefits, motor vehicle insurance minimum coverage mandates, and contributory negligence language.

Ziegelbauer also wants to put a sunset on the new tax bracket for high earners and the capital gains tax increase.

See the co-sponsorship memo here.

-- By Greg Bump

The fight over liability reform provisions in the state budget continues -- this time through press releases.

The Wisconsin Association for Justice, which represents attorneys, says that a memo released Tuesday by the Wisconsin Medical Society on the impact of joint and several liability changes is misleading.

"The Medical Society claims that physicians in the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund (Fund) would be hurt because a non-paying physician may cause the Fund to pay out more money. This is nonsensical," the WAJ fires back in a press release.

The WAJ points out that all Wisconsin doctors, with a few exceptions, are required to carry malpractice insurance in the amount of $1 million per occurrence or $3 million total coverage, and that doctors in Wisconsin must participate in Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund.

"The Fund is not in any danger. It already provides unlimited coverage to physicians and was designed to make sure that injured patients are compensated if hurt by medical malpractice," the WAJ contends.

-- By Greg Bump

The Assembly Democrats have now gone to closed caucus to discuss strategy and process for the budget bill.

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Dem members of the JFC were pointing the finger at Senate Dems on the committee when questioned on why regional transit authority in the budget doesn't allow for the formation of RTAs statewide.

Reps. Schneider and Hubler was curious about why the RTAs will be limited to Milwaukee and Dane counties.

Rep. Sherman, a member of the committee, that Assembly Dems tried to get language for Fox Valley and northwestern Wisconsin into the budget.

"We sat up until three in the bloody morning negotiating," he said. "There wouldn't have been any RTAs if we hadn't been willing to compromise."

"I don't care if you were up to three in the morning. Negotiating with whom?" Schneider replied.

Rep. Grigsby, another JFC member, spoke up. "We got into a back and forth with the Senate, and we didn't get everything we tried for."

-- By Greg Bump

Rep. David Cullen was very outspoken in his displeasure that the JFC budget includes the insurance coverage mandate for autism disorders.

The bill was in the Assembly Insurance Committee that Cullen chairs, and he said he was working on a compromise. He said it was his understanding that budget wouldn't include provisions that already existed in bill form, but here this issue is.

He called the plan that's in the JFC bill "the Cadillac of autism mandates" and said it would make Wisconsin's law the most expensive in the country.

He also said this would make him less likely to vote for the budget.

"I don't know if anyone else is getting lit-dropped in their neighborhood saying they're against autism (coverage), or if it's just me," Cullen said. "If people think that it's helping me to vote for this or the budget, they're wrong. But keep doing it."

-- By Greg Bump

Assembly Democrats have a number of concerns with the budget bill produced by the Joint Finance Committee, judging from the questions they're asking as they're briefed on the document by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

Those who have raised questions so far include Reps. Louis Molepske and Mary Hubler on the furloughs of state employees, Rep. Penny Bernard Schaber on education funding, and Rep. Kim Hixson on debt restructuring.

Hubler and Rep. Peggy Krusick also had a question about a provision for transporting pregnant students to school. Rep. Mark Pocan, who co-chairs the Finance Committee, said he'd look through his JFC notes and get back to them later.

Rep. Marlin Schneider took exception to a provision on asbestos liability, as did Rep. Teres Berceau.

"Where did it come from, what corporations are impacted and which lobbyist brought this in?" Schneider asked.

Currently, there's a lively debate on joint and several liability language, which some are having trouble comprehending.

"Can you put it in layman's terms?" Speaker Mike Sheridan asked.

"I'm a non-lawyer and I've dumbed it down as far as I can," said an LFB staffer.

"We need a book 'Legislating for Dummies,'" Schneider cracked.

Rep. Rob Turner suggested the proposal isn't "ready for prime time" if the lawmakers are having trouble understanding it.

Pocan said there would be a clearer explanation for lay people handed out to the caucus by Monday.

Rep. Mark Radcliffe was not happy that the caucus was spending time worrying about joint and several.

He said he spent yesterday with a constituent who was losing her job because of the DMV center closure in his district. He said he wanted to talk about job creation "not some crap" that doesn't matter to his constituents.

"This is ridiculous. Let's talk about the budget and how we are going to save jobs in this budget," Radcliffe said.

Schneider said Radcliffe will care if a constituent is in an accident and gets a million dollar hospital bill.

"Then you'll be listening to them say why didn't you do anything about this," he said.

Radcliffe said in that case, the issue should be taken up as a separate bill.

-- By Greg Bump

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen on Wednesday ramped up his public criticism of cuts the Joint Finance Committee approved for the Department of Justice, saying they were partisan, poor budgeting and would compromise public safety.

Van Hollen said the $17.5 million in cuts he tallied amounted to about 10 percent of the agency's budget and would require laying off 85 employees on top of the 40 positions currently open.

Van Hollen was particularly incensed that the agency was included in an additional 5 percent, across-the-board cuts that JFC imposed on some agencies. He said the Dem-run committee exempted most public safety spending from that additional cut, but hit DOJ with what amounts to a $5.4 million cut any way.

"If that's reinstated, I can find ways, albeit detrimental to public safety, to save monies and meet our budget cut," Van Hollen said during a conference call.

Van Hollen, a Republican, charged it was obvious the committee acted in a partisan manner in doling out cuts to DOJ compared to the way it treated other public safety programs.

Saying ultimately he didn't think the DOJ should be cut at all considering its public safety functions, Van Hollen pointed to a slew of earmarks in JFC put in the budget that he believed should be cut before the agency takes a hit.

He included money for updates at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, $500,000 to repair the Oshkosh Opera House, $100,000 for a stone barn and $6.6 million on a Dane County watershed project.

"While they may be great programs, they aren't as important as public safety," Van Hollen said.

JFC Co-chair Mark Pocan said the projects Van Hollen pointed out are in the capital budget, are bonded for and in some cases are spread out over several years. He said the AG is not comprehending the budget process and failing to acknowledge that JFC addressed some of his concerns like adding new positions to fight Internet crimes.

"I think he's just got to look at what we did with virtually every state agency. I'm sure there are other people who aren't happy, either," Pocan said. "But I don't know anybody else who is cranking up their employees to give us calls."

-- By JR Ross