Gov. Jim Doyle's budget plan, introduced Tuesday, included several controversial moves to cut government spending that received mixed reviews from legislators.
State Senate President Alan Lasee, R-De Pere, said Doyle presented an argument stating that taxes will not be raised to cover the deficit but, \When he talks about eliminating the QEO and two-thirds funding for schools, that will have a significant effect on property taxes. There's no getting around that at all,"" Lasee said in a state telephone audio feed after the budget address.
However, the Qualified Economic Offer prevented teachers in Wisconsin from negotiating pay raises high enough to keep up with rising health costs, according to UW-Madison Professor of political science and public affairs Dennis Dresang.
""It was long overdue,"" Dresang said. ""People who say this is going to raise property taxes have to be either looking at only part of the proposal or else they're making an assumption that is not really a part of the proposal.""
Other concerns voiced by legislators were how many programs will stay alive if projections of federal funding and strategies like intergovernmental transfers don't pan out. IGT's are revenues that counties transfer to the state, which then can apply at a higher rate for additional funds from the federal government, according to Dresang.
However, the federal government may not continue to allow this practice, so according to state Sen. Bob Welch, R-Redgrantie, the state should not count on these funds.
In response to those points, Dresang said some things mentioned by Doyle like IGTs are not, ""money in the bank,"" quite yet, but ""to some extent that's part of budgeting ... budgets are all projections.""
Another initiative in Doyle's budget plan that raised legislative eyebrows planned to take funds from the Department of Transportation and use them to fill the cuts in education. The DOT seems very supportive of the initiative.
""The state will be spending about the same amount in transportation as it has in past years,"" said Randy Romanski, a DOT executive assistant. ""Because of the Marquette interchange starting and the additional commitment to other transportation priorities, the state will be investing about the same amount in transportation.""
Since there are so many points of contention in the budget, a prolonged battle could be ahead, according to Dresang.
