WisPolitics Budget Blog

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, said Republicans would have preferred a solution that did more to cut state spending, and he said no one is thrilled with having to do a budget repair bill.

"If any of these were good ideas, frankly we would have done them already," he said. "But in the end the people of the state of Wisconsin have asked us to come here and govern ... and figure out a way that we can keep this state moving forward."

Huebsch said that he is hopefully that the slowing economy that created the budget shortfall will turn around, and he said that Wisconsin may be able to move out of the slowdown faster than its neighbors.

Assembly Minority Leader Jim Kreuser, D-Kenosha, opened his remarks by acknowledging that the bill is not popular with the guv.

"There will be no gathering tonight at the residence if we pass this," Kreuser said. Instead, there will be a "dutch treat" reception at The Silver Dollar a block from the Capitol. "Bipartisan, of course," he said.

Kreuser said the changes that came in the last week have made the bill better, but he also lamented "missed opportunities" like the hospital assessment and funding for the KRM commuter rail line.

"Out of all the ideas that were out there, these were the ones we had to agree on," Kreuser said. "It's compromise."

Labels: Budget_Repair_Bill, Huebsch

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, released the following statement last night in response to comments from Assembly Minority Leader Jim Kreuser, D-Kenosha:

"Senator Decker and I have spent the last several weeks putting together a bipartisan compromise that balances the concerns of members from both parties without raiding the transportation fund. I am disappointed that the Assembly Democrat's have decided not to join us in this effort to address the serious consequences we know will occur without a budget repair bill."

Labels: Budget_Repair_Bill, Huebsch

Assembly Minority Leader Jim Kreuser says he's talked with Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, about offering Democratic votes to enable the budget bill to pass the Legislature.

"At some point, he's going to need some Democratic votes. I'm not going to hang him up," said Kreuser, D-Kenosha, in an interview with WisPolitics.

"I've talked about it and I've opened the door, to (let him) know that I want to work with him to get a budget done in Wisconsin," he said.

"I think we can get a few Democrats to help out," Kreuser said.

Kreuser said he expects a long caucus on Tuesday before the vote on the separate funding bill for K-12 education and local aids. Though he called the move "political posturing," he also expects some of his caucus members to vote for the package.

"There are some districts that may do very well by this, and those people ought to vote for it if it's good for their districts," Kreuser said.

Listen to the Kreuser interview here.

Labels: Huebsch, Kreuser

The committee is back in session with a Republican counter proposal to the Democrats counter proposal on K-12 funding.

See the GOP counter here.

Rep. Huebsch says the Republicans can't accept the Dems K-12 offer because it spends $7 million more than the budget the Senate passed in June.

"We've already given you $85 million," Huebsch said, referring to the Republicans education package that raises their proposal on school aids from $150 million to $235 million.

Labels: Huebsch, K-12 Funding

Rep. Huebsch opens the meeting by saying the Assembly GOP will go ahead with plans to take a floor vote Tuesday on their separate funding bill. Scanning the Dem counter proposal on K-12 education, he said he is encouraged that there is movement.

"It seems we are in the heat of agreement here," he said.

He said he hopes the Senate will take up the bill after it passes the Assembly, and the governor signs it. Both of those scenarios are unlikely to happen.

Republicans also have a counter on tech schools. We hope to have it posted shortly.

Labels: Huebsch

Rep. Huebsch said the Republican plan to pass separate legislation to address K-12 and local government funding is an attempt to head off a $600 million property tax increase.

"This is not a stunt," he said.

The Assembly bill includes a $235 million equalized aids increase for K-12, the amount that the governor and Senate Dems included in their versions of the budget.

"I'm giving you your budget," Huebsch said.

He said for the last two months Dems have been engaged in "delay tactics" as they rip apart the GOP budget.

He said the Assembly will pass the property tax-related bills on Tuesday.

Labels: Huebsch

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch announced today that the Assembly will take up the Republican's "property taxpayer protection act" during a floor session on Tuesday.

The package that would break out K-12 funding, levy limits and shared revenue from the rest of the budget.

"Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster recently
announced that if legislation is not passed setting the level of state aid for local schools by September 28th, property taxes will increase significantly over the next two years," said Huebsch in a press release. "While the conference committee will continue working to finalize the rest of 2007-09 state budget, the Assembly will act immediately and vote on items to provide local schools and local units of government the state aid necessary to provide a quality education, needed services and to ensure local property taxpayers will be protected."

See the full press release here.

Labels: Huebsch

Sen. Jauch said the Dems' renewables package "acknowledges in very important ways (Assembly Republican) positions," and hopes there'll be agreement on it soon.

"We could have that done next week. There's no reason why we shouldn't," he said.

Rep. Huebsch acknowledged the two sides aren't far apart on the issue, but said there are differences such as the Dems' plan to raise the recycling tipping fee.

Labels: Huebsch, Jauch, Renewable Energy

Sen. Robson said earlier she'd like to meet at least two days a week, and preferably three, at the conference committee table to reach a budget compromise.

Rep. Huebsch said he doesn't see that as a solution to the disagreements between the two sides. "I don't equate meeting here at the table with progress in moving us forward," he said.

Huebsch said the intent of the meetings seems to be for each side to rip each other's budget, and there is little give in either side's proposals. "To come in here and say 'We want our budget' isn't exactly negotiation," he said.

Labels: Huebsch

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch ripped conference committee Democrats in a press release, saying while Republicans offered "two proposals to reign in government spending and keep the bureaucrats' hands out of the taxpayers' pockets," Dems responded with "scare tactics and 'Madison Math.'"

"Every day the committee meets we have an opportunity to find compromise, fund essential programs and construct a budget that reflects Wisconsin's top priorities. But today the Democrats chose to respond with partisan rhetoric," Huebsch, R-West Salem, said.

Labels: Huebsch

Rep. Huebsch has extended the offer to the Senate that the committee agree to spend $56.3 billion, the amount spent under the Assembly's budget proposal.

Huebsch said Assembly Republicans want to "build a budget based upon the money we have as taxpayers."

Huebsch also said the Assembly will agree to 571 items that appear in both the Assembly and Senate budget versions, which he said takes care of nearly half of the entire budget.

Labels: Huebsch

Sen. Robson asked Rep. Huebsch to clarify statements he made in the media about whether he is considering the option of not passing a budget and having state spending continue at current levels.

"If we weren't committed to passing a budget, we wouldn't have passed our own, and we wouldn't be here today," Huebsch said.

"I'll take that as a yes," replied Robson.

Labels: Huebsch, Robson

Rep. Huebsch, R-West Salem, said the budget forwarded by the Assembly provides the highest funding level in state history for K-12 education, and helps the "neediest of the needy," all while styaing within taxpayers ability to pay.

Huebsch kept his opening comments brief, less than five minutes compared with nearly 20 minutes for Robson.

"While government has an endless list of wants, taxpayers don't have an endless supply of dollars to fulfill them," Huebsch said. "At the end of the day, families can spend their paychecks more wisely than Madison bureaucrats."

When it comes to health care, Huebsch said "government isn't the answer, government is the biggest part of the problem."

Labels: Huebsch

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch says the goal of the budget proposal forwarded by his Republican caucus is to bring state government spending to a level taxpayers can afford. That plan has been bashed by Dems for being "vindictive" and "mean-spirited" amid threats that it could lead to reductions in police and fire services and wreak havoc on the UW System. Huebsch calls the dire warnings "scare tactics."

"The one question I consistently ask is when a government official comes and says we need to cut police or we need to cut fire, or like we had last week we need to cut Amber Alert, my question is: If those are not priorities for you, what is? And where are you spending our money?" Huebsch asks. "Because keep in mind we are still one of the top 10 tax states in the nation. If you can't afford police and fire, you better be able to justify every dime of the rest of your budget. And I don't think they are able to do that. And that's when the veil drops, and you realize that it's just a scare tactic."

Huebsch, R-West Salem, says he didn't have to trade budget items for votes in his caucus. "What I needed to do in order to get to 51 votes was not raise taxes. That really was the only thing that continued to drive us," he says.

Huebsch says he isn't drawing any bottom lines going into the conference committee. "That is the best way to blow it up. And I have no intention of blowing it up, so I'm not drawing bottom lines."

With the likelihood that the conference committee report may include some tax increases, Huebsch said he hasn't polled his caucus to see how many members are willing to vote for that product. He notes that after years under Govs. Thompson and Scott McCallum, and after having control of both houses and the Joint Finance Committee in the last biennium, this is first budget in recent memory that the Assembly Republicans have written as a caucus.

"We basically threw out everything else and said, 'What are our priorities? What are we going to do?'" he said. "Because of that involvement, I have members that now know more about the budget than most finance members. ... I don't fear bottom lines from them either. They know what our goals are, they knew what our intention was, and they know you have to work with the other side on certain things. But as long as we hold to the goals that we have and the fact that we showed them you can pass a budget without raising taxes, I'm not concerned about the number of votes I'll have in this caucus nor in this house."

Huebsch said he has no date in mind for when the conference committee will wrap up. "I have a standard answer is I'm looking for a good budget, not a fast one," he says.

"But I also would say that as we look for specific dates, it would be very easy for us to be done next week, if they would just pass my budget," Huebsch joked.

Huebsch sat down with WisPolitics yesterday to talk about the budget conference committee process, why it's unfair for some to paint him as an "obstructionist," and the controversial shared revenue cuts to Milwaukee, Superior, Racine and Beloit.

Listen to the Huebsch interview here.

Labels: Huebsch

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch responded to criticism of the Republican-authored Assembly budget today on the "Early Spin" show on WISN-AM radio in Milwaukee.

"We must have done the right thing if Gov. Doyle's running around the state ripping our plan, there's no doubt about it," said Huebsch, R-West Salem.

Huebsch mainatained a very hard line on taxes increases, but said compromise on taxes could come on the cigarette tax.

"If there is a tax that can go up, the cigarette tax has been the one that this state and both parties have gone to in the past," he said. "That is the one above all others, and I say this emphatically, above all others that even gets tepid appearance of being one that could go up. But that is certainly not anything I'm committing to today, and it's not a direction I'm hoping to go."

The program host asked Huebsch to make a commitment that he will not support a budget with the oil franchise fee proposed by Doyle, but Huebsch declined.

"I won't make any commitments today," he said. "Mainly because it just puts me in a box when I'm trying to go in and negotiate with (Democrats)."

Asked if he has a date for when a budget should be passed, Huebsch responded, "I have no date, I feel no pressure to pass one."

Listen to audio of the program here.

Labels: Huebsch

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch issued a statement this morning on the budget passed by Senate Democrats.

"The budget proposal passed by the state Senate last night sends a frightening message to the people of Wisconsin," Huebsch said in the statement. He reiterated the Assembly GOP's committment to passing a budget without tax increases.

Labels: Huebsch

Senate Dems will roll out a universal health care plan tomorrow that would put all Wisconsin residents into a single purchasing pool under the guidance of a 16-member board, a system they say would dramatically cut costs.

The plan, dubbed "Healthy Wisconsin," calls for public and private employees to contribute 4 percent of their Social Security wages while employers would put in 10.5 percent of Social Security wages. Dems estimate that averages out to a monthly health care cost of $140 per employee and $370 per employer. Sole proprietors or those with other sources of income would pay 10 percent of their earnings as calculated for Social Security.

The total in new annual business and employee taxes would be $15.2 billion once the plan kicked in Jan. 1, 2009, according to Senate Dems who drafted the plan. It would cover all Wisconsin residents under 65 except those already on medical assistance programs.

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, has already dismissed the proposal as the biggest tax increase in state history. And Gov. Jim Doyle has signaled he likes his own plan, not this one from fellow Democrats.

Mike Prentiss, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, called the plan a "disaster for Wisconsin."

"It will throw health care coverage and medical care for everyone in Wisconsin into chaos," he said.

Josh Wescott, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson, D-Beloit, said private and public sector employees and their employers now pay $17.5 billion on health insurance premiums. Senate Dems estimate their plan would come in $1.8 billion less while also covering an estimated 472,000 state residents who don't have health insurance.

"If the cost of health care is suddenly now considered a tax, every industry in the state that offers health insurance is going to get a massive tax cut," Wescott said.

*See a summary of the plan: http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/large/070624HWsummary.pdf

*See the Dems' "Case for Healthy Wisconsin":
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/large/070624HWfacts.pdf

*Listen to a May interview with Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, as he worked on the plan:
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/070503Erpenbach.mp3

The Senate Committee on Health and Human Services will have an informational hearing on the plan at 11 a.m. tomorrow morning. The plan is expected to be inserted into the Senate version of the budget, which the chamber is to take up Tuesday.

Other highlights of the plan include:
-No cost sharing for preventative care and no co-pays for minors. Adults would pay $20 for office or appropriate emergency room visits. Unnecessary emergency room visits would include a $60 fee.
-Deductibles would be $300 per individual and $600 per family with no deductible for kids.
-The plan would be run by a 16-person board that would include members from small and big business, agriculture, labor and others. The board would have bargaining power to negotiate prices and run the plan. It also would have an advisory panel with doctors, hospitals and others from the medical community.

Critics of similar proposals have questioned if the payroll tax to pay for the plan will be able to keep up with the spiraling costs of health care.

Wescott said the plan includes caps on the assessment of 4 percent for the employee and up to 12 percent for the employer. He said the projections on the plan show it can be done at a 10.5 percent assessment on employers. Should the board want to exceed the 12 percent cap, it would have to go back to the Legislature for permission.

Prentiss scoffed at that notion, saying backers would have no problem going back to public for more after hitting them up for $15 billion. He said costs under the plan would undoubtedly go up faster than income, requiring another tax increase.

Wescott also said private health insurance companies would have some administrative responsibilities under the plan and would be able to offer supplemental coverage for things such as vision and dental.

Labels: Erpenbach, Fitzgerald, Health Care Reform, Huebsch, Robson

Gov. Jim Doyle met with Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch and Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson in his Capitol office today, telling them in no uncertain terms he expects the two houses to deliver a budget to his desk "on time," said Doyle spokesman Matt Canter.

"The governor's last two budgets got done at the end of July or beginning of August, and he believes it is so critical to pass a budget before local school districts and municipalities have to do their budgeting," said Canter. "He knows that Democrats and Republicans will have disagreements, so let's deal with them now, let's not stare at each other for three months and then deal with this."

Huebsch told reporters yesterday that he and Assembly Republicans will be prepared to go to the floor with a budget a week or two after the Senate, which is expected to have a budget passed by the end of this month. But Huebsch added, "I will not be as concerned about the date as I will about the product."

"I have no deadline on myself for when a budget needs to be in place," Huebsch said. "Wisconsin does not shut down if a budget isn't passed."

Listen to audio of Huebsch's press conference here.

Assembly Minority Leader Jim Kreuser said he was "disappointed" that there would be talk of an impasse.

"I think we have a lot of things we need to be working together on and talking through, and the people out in the general public want us to get a budget done," Kreuser said.

"I'm not going to talk about impasse. We have a long way to go in this process," said the Kenosha Democrat.

Canter said Doyle's budget and the one passed by the Joint Finance Committee provides tax relief to middle class families in health care, child care, and higher education.

"The governor has a hard time believing that Republicans or Democrats are going to protect big oil companies and big tobacco companies and cut funding for our schools and tax relief for the middle class families," Canter said. "Holding up the budget process would do just that."

-- Senate Democrats caucused today on the budget, with the Legislative Fiscal Bureau briefing the lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee budget during open session.

The Dems held a closed caucus to discuss the budget prior to the LFB briefing. The Senate is expected to caucus again next week, but a date has not been set.

The Senate Dems are expected to take the budget to the floor late next week or early in the last week of June.

See the LFB briefing documents:
Condition statements (governor and JFC)

General Fund Taxes; Workforce Development

Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection; Commerce; Natural Resources

Shared Revenue and Tax Relief; Transportation

Administration; Corrections; Tribal Gaming; Veterans Affairs; Legislature

Health and Family Services

Public Instruction; Wisconsin Technical College System; UW System; Higher Educational Aids Board; Building Program

Labels: Doyle, Huebsch, Kreuser, Robson

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, said in a news conference today with Capitol reporters that his caucus will bring forward a budget that does not increase taxes. Fees may be a different story, he said.

"The conference committee will be able to see a budget without tax increases because Republicans are going to show them how to do it," Huebsch said.

But Huebsch said that may not include some fee increases. "I have never included fees," he said.

"A fee is something we charge someone that uses a service of the state government," Huebsch said, citing the gas tax to pay for public roads as one example.

Huebsch said the Assembly budget will include the motion forwarded in the Joint Finance Committee by Republicans to cut out the oil franchise fee proposal from Gov. Jim Doyle's budget.

See the GOP proposal for funding transportation here.

See more on the press conference, including audio, in the WisPolitics PM Update this afternoon.

Labels: Huebsch

Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, says the first two weeks of the Joint Finance Committee process has been "horrible for taxpayers and fantastic for big spenders," and called on Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch and JFC co-chair Rep. Kitty Rhoades to end it.

"The current process, negotiated between the Co-Chairs, clearly favors the Senate Democrats in preserving Governor Doyle's $1.7 billion in tax and fee increases," said Nass in a letter to Rhoades and Huebsch. "It's painfully obvious that Senate Democrats won't agree to any changes in tax and fee increases, but will accept changes to promote spending and buy friends through expanded government programs."

Nass says the JFC should be skipped and legislative conference committees should has out the budget differences.

Labels: Huebsch, Nass, Rhoades

WAUWATOSA -- Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch and state Sen. Jeff Plale, appearing before a business audience Wednesday, sent sharply contrasting responses to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's budget.

"We don't see why we need to raise any taxes," said Huebsch, R-West Salem, the Legislature's top Republican. He called Doyle's $1.7 billion in proposed tax boosts the "biggest challenge'' for Republicans in rewriting the budget.

But Huebsch, though given the chance, didn't rule out any specific tax boost proposed by Doyle, apparently preserving his options as Republicans continue to study the massive document.

Plale, D-South Milwaukee and the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said it was likely that the cigarette tax boost and oil companies profits tax would pass in some form, but he didn't predict at what level.

Plale said such boosts were likely because the alternatives - raising the income or sales tax, or both - would not be a "tasteful solution" for the voters.

He called the proposed budget "responsible and fair" and praised Doyle's targeted middle-class tax cuts

But Huebsch, bemoaning a "spending spree" in Madison, said the state needs to get spending "back in line with people's ability to pay.''

The legislators appeared at a breakfast briefing on the budget organized by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce. The event was held at the GE Healthcare Clinical Systems Headquarters at the Milwaukee County Research Park.

Both legislators said health care costs will be a big concern in the budget but disagreed on how to provide more access for the uninsured.

"Universal health care is a universal goal," Huebsch said, adding Republicans wanted to get there through a more free market health care system. He also said Doyle's "tax scam,'' funded by a hospital assessment he called a "sick tax,'' would result in a "serious crisis'' down the road when the federal government blocked the maneuver.

Plale in turn said some action on health care would need to be carried out at the federal level. He said state measures to reduce health care costs are just "nibbling around the edges." Plale suggested legislators would work to help hospitals negatively impacted by the proposal. "It's got a long way to go,'' he said.

On other budget issues:

--Both agreed on the need to maintain two-thirds funding of schools. But while Plale said Doyle's plan to repeal the QEO "probably'' would pass, Huebsch was adamant that the qualified economic offer would stand. "We need to have a balance there,'' Huebsch said, suggesting higher-paid teachers would be using 15-year-old textbooks if the QEO were repealed and revenue caps were left in place.

--Both legislators said continuing to put money in highway repairs in the Milwaukee-Chicago corridor would prove beneficial to the economy all around the state. "We never fully built the freeway system in Milwaukee that we should have," Plale said, adding he also supports the project that would extend Metra train lines into southeastern Wisconsin. And while Huebsch agreed that improving transit in southeastern Wisconsin is important, he said it should not be done at the neglect of other projects around the state. "We don't believe we need to do that,'' Huebsch said.

-- By Dan Polley

Labels: Huebsch, Plale

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, said Dem Gov. Jim Doyle is trying to implement a "great amount of policy" in his latest proposal - much more than his previous budgets.

Huebsch said nobody was surprised that Doyle proposed eliminating the QEO in his latest budget. Members of his caucus keep finding new policy items in the budget, Huebsch said, including a provision one that would expand the Department of Justice's ability to sue individuals.

Doyle spokesman Matt Canter said Doyle has put substantially less policy in the budget than previous administrations.

"What is there is good, and the governor deems (it) important," Canter said.

Huebsch also said his biggest concern with Doyle's budget is the "innumerable tax increases" and called the reliance on federal Medicare and Medicaid funds "mediscam." Huebsch cited concerns with the long-term problems the state budget could encounter with the use of one-time funds and proposed transfers from segregated funds.

Huebsch also said today that he hopes the Assembly and Senate can push through the budget repair bill for this fiscal biennium before the Joint Committee on Finance goes into executive session for the 2007-09 budget, which would probably be around mid-April.

Listen to the audio from Huebsch's meeting with reporters here

Labels: Doyle, Huebsch, Policy in Budget