WisPolitics Budget Blog

Gov. Jim Doyle's partial vetoes of the budget repair bill shaved $12 million off the state's structural deficit compared to what lawmakers had approved, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

The budget repair bill lawmakers approved left a structural deficit of $1.694 billion heading into the 2009-11 budget. LFB Director Bob Lang said the net result of the governor's vetoes left a $1.682 billion shortfall.

The structural deficit was projected to drop below $900 million under the budget Doyle signed into law last fall. But sharply falling revenues pushed it significantly higher.

According to the LFB, the plan Doyle introduced to fix the shortfall would have left the state with a structural deficit of $1.42 billion, the original Assembly plan carried a $1.65 billion structural deficit, and the Senate's proposal had a $1.37 billion structural deficit.

See the LFB memo here.

Labels: Budget_Repair_Bill, structural deficit

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau says the state's structural deficit will rise to $1.694 billion in this biennium under the proposed budget repair bill before the Legislature.

Under the budget adopted last fall, the structural deficit fell to just under $900 million. But sharply falling revenues have caused the deficit to jump back to its highest level since the 2003-05 biennium, when it hit a record $2.9 billion.

The current budget repair proposal, approved by a conference committee of bipartisan legislative leaders yesterday, does not significantly inflate the structural deficit above plans forwarded earlier by the governor, the Dem-controlled Senate, or Republican-controlled Assembly. According to the LFB, the governor's plan would have left the state with a structural deficit of $1.42 billion, the Assembly plan carried a $1.65 billion structural deficit, and the Senate's proposal had a $1.37 billion structural deficit.

See the LFB memo here.

Labels: Budget_Repair_Bill, structural deficit