WisPolitics Budget Blog

Rep. Rhoades said the Legislature that works well together rarely makes headlines, and she said the discussion so far here today is backing that up.

She said the proposal on the table, 571 budget budget items in the Senate, Assembly and JFC budgets, would take care of half the budget.

"If we wait to see if we can make them better, we're never going to vote on anything," she said.

If the committee agrees on the 571 items, she challenged the media to write headlines that say "Legislature works together."

Labels: Rhoades

Rep. Rhoades said out-state residents of Wisconsin "are scared to death" of "government-run health care." Their fears are based on lack of access, and the state's lack of commitment to funding its current health care commitments, she said.

Sen. Decker offered this to illustrate the Dems commitment to the plan. "We're dead dog serious on this proposal."

"I don't know why you folks are fighting giving the same insurance plan we have to the hard working folks in this state," he said.

Labels: Decker, Rhoades

The conferees are taking turns blasting the others side's budget proposal.

Sen. Decker blasted the Republicans' defense of "big oil." Rep. Rhoades said the Democratic budget proposals spend more than state residents can afford, and said the Healthy Wisconsin, "I don't want the government running my health care."

Sen. Jauch ripped the Assembly Republican budget up and down, saying it "seems to be devised without any moral compass."

Rep. Fitzgerald said Gov. Doyle's budget is "very liberal" and said he has constituents that have to work two jobs just to afford the tax burden in the state of Wisconsin. Taxpayers are "angry right now," Fitzgerald said.

Rep. Kreuser sounded a more conciliatory tone, but did rip the Assembly GOP budget for cutting education, firefighters, and police, among other things. He said the GOP budget a "budget that united our (Assembly Dem) caucus."

Sen. Fitzgerald tore apart the Healthy Wisconsin plan, listing a number of unanswered questions and unintended consequences of the proposal, and said there is dissension among Democrats about it, including Gov. Doyle. "I have no idea how this conference committee can function when it seems Democrats need a conference committee on health care before they come to this table," he said.

Fitzgerald did offer some hope for compromise, saying Gov. Doyle's proposal to extend BadgerCare "deserves some consideration."

Labels: Decker, Jauch, Kreuser, Rep. Fitzgerald, Rhoades, Sen. Fitzgerald

The Rhoades-Vos motion that would 70 percent of school district total operating expenditures be directed at instructional activities begining in 2010-11 is now on the floor.

Vos said the proposal has received bipartisan support in other states, and said it eliminates waste and ensures funding isn't spent on "other areas that don't have the same instructional impact."

Sen. Lehman said determining classroom impact isn't always easy, and said the motion shows that Republican members of the JFC are trying to overrule local school boards.

UPDATE - Motion is rejected 7-9, with Sen. Olsen voting with the eight committee Democrats.

Labels: General_School_Aids, Revenue_Limits, Rhoades, Vos

It hasn't come to the floor yet, but co-chair Rep. Rhoades and Rep. Vos have drafted a motion to require 70 percent of school district total operating expenditures be directed at instructional activities begining in 2010-11.

Labels: General_School_Aids, Revenue_Limits, Rhoades, Vos

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

Republicans on the committee have balked at Gov. Doyle's proposal to make participation in the FoodShare Employment and Training Program voluntary. Doyle has estimated making the program voluntary will save $709,000 in state GPR over the biennium, as well as the same amount in federal funds. (Budget paper 406)

Co-chair Rep. Rhoades and her GOP colleagues said making the program voluntary retreats from the state's mission with the W-2 program, and is "starting to go back to the traditional welfare program." Rhoades moved to delete the provision.

Rep. Robin Vos, R-Racine, said even though mandating participation in the FoodShare program may cost more, it ensures that those receiving benefits are actively looking for work "so people begin to get off the public dole."

The Dems prevailed as the vote deadlocked at 8-8, and the governor's proposal was adopted.

On the next vote, after an attempt by Republicans to delete the provision and by Democrats to modify it, the governor's proposal to move the FoodShares program from DWD to DHFS was approved by default. (Budget paper 407)

Labels: DHFS, FoodShare, Rhoades, Vos, W-2

Rep. Kitty Rhoades, co-chair of the committee, took offense this morning to a characterization that the JFC and Legislature was in for a "long hot summer" of budget battling.

Rhoades reminded a reporter that the committee is on time, and actually started earlier than the last split committee.

True to her word, the committee wrapped up earlier than many expected today, plowing through 34 budget papers.

Next meetings are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

Labels: Rhoades

The committee has returned from its break, with Rhoades telling Jauch that Republicans agree the Crex Meadows Youth Conservation Camp in Grantsburg is a good project, but he may not be pursuing the right funding source. She asks Jauch if he'd like to pull it back until a later time.

Jauch replied that the same case could be made with any motion down the line. He seemed to warn that defeating the motion would impact negotiations down the road.

"I've seen this committee work like a boxing match and I've seen this committee work in a very collegial way," Jauch said, explaining that the job of the committee is to get as much of the budget completed before it goes to the legislative houses.

"I understand that programs like this you want to fund without expending new GPR, there for it has to come from someplace. I've identified a funding source," he said.

Jauch's motion failed on a party-line 8-8 vote.

Labels: Jauch, Rhoades, Youth Apprenticeship Program

Budget paper 305 concerns fees for securities agents and investment advisers. The governor has proposed raising the fee from $30 to $60 for the initial license and annual renewals. Program revenue from the increase is estimated at $3 million annually.

Co-chair Rep. Kitty Rhoades moves for a vote on alternative 3 of the budget paper, which would eliminate the fee increase.

Sen. Luther Olsen says the governor's proposal is an example of the fee transfers in the budget. Co-chair Sen. Russ Decker says fee transfers have been going on for as long as he's been in the Legislature, and the state's "gotta pay the bills."

Initially, Rhoades motion passes 8-7-1, but the absent member, Sen. Bob Jauch, walked in just as the roll call was being completed. They record Jauch's vote as no, and the motion is defeated 8-8. The governor's proposal passes.

Labels: Decker, DFI, Jauch, Olsen, Rhoades

Rep. Kitty Rhoades, the co-chair of the committee, reminded the legislators that they still have a long day ahead of them with the UW System, technical schools and higher education board coming up. She asked both sides of the aisle to narrow their questions.

Labels: Rhoades

The battle lines of the 2007-09 budget, what Hudson GOP Rep. Kitty Rhoades calls "deep philosophical divides," have been drawn this week during agency briefings before the Joint Finance Committee."

The question is should the state live within its means? I believe yes," said Rhoades, the co-chair of the budget-writing committee, today in an interview with WisPolitics. "That's how you build stable programs. It doesn't do any good to go build some new great Cadillac program and then go, 'Oh, by the way we can't afford this.' Now you've put people's lives at risk, and you haven't governed."

Partisan differences have been most apparent in discussions over Gov. Jim Doyle's proposals to institute a 2.5 percent tax on oil companies to pay for state road needs, and a 1 percent assessment on hospitals that the administration says will capture more federal money for medical assistance reimbursements.

Rhoades' co-chair, Dem Sen. Russ Decker of Weston, said the GOP philosophy of "cut, cut, cut us into prosperity" isn't working."

"Democrats are siding up with Jim Doyle's proposal to go after the oil companies for the franchise fee," Decker told WisPolitics. "And for the life of me I can't figure out why anyone is opposed to bringing 575 million more federal dollars into this state, and the hospitals would get a rebate of $290 million than what they're getting now."

Rhoades said she would prefer that the state budget using available revenues, and build programs accordingly. But, she didn't say that the budget proposed by the governor will be scrapped and rebuilt.

"That will be a negotiated process," she said. "We haven't had this dynamic or this galaxy of a Democratic governor with split houses since Patrick Lucey. There's not a lot of historians walking around saying, 'This is how you do it.'"

Click here to listen to an interview with Rhoades.

Click here to listen to an interview with Decker.

Labels: Decker, Rhoades