While Democratic and Republican lawmakers continue to disagree in state budget talks, both sides have said the debate is now largely over the hospital and cigarette taxes, according to a memo released by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
The memo showed Gov. Jim Doyle and the Assembly Republicans have similar funding proposals for K-12 education, the Department of Corrections and the Wisconsin Technical College System.
The Democrat-controlled state Senate and Gov. Jim Doyle have proposed a tax on hospitals to generate more federal Medicaid funding, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The Wisconsin Hospital Association Board of Directors dropped its opposition to the tax last week, but the proposal has yet to be endorsed by Republican lawmakers.
Ryan Murray, spokesperson for state Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said the actions by WHA should not be overestimated, as the WHA is remaining neutral, not endorsing the tax. Murray said some hospitals have indicated the tax will be passed along to consumers.
We're going through a time when health care is getting more and more expensive,"" Murray said. ""Is that really a time when you want to be tacking on added costs?""
Murray said a compromise during the next two days is unlikely, with little negotiations going on in the past few days. The state Senate and state Assembly are still roughly $1 billion apart, according to Murray.
Carrie Lynch, spokesperson for state Sen. Russ Decker, D-Weston, who is on the budget Conference Committee, said the type of alterations Republicans want to see in the two taxes will hurt other areas of the budget.
If the hospital tax is not enacted soon, available federal funds will not be received, Lynch said. She said the current Assembly Republican proposal of a 75-cent cigarette tax, as opposed to the $1.25 earlier offered by Republicans, would mean the health care section of the budget would lack millions.
""They'll agree to something, then two days later in the press they will back away from it,"" Lynch said.
Both the Assembly Republicans and Senate Democrats are going to caucus tomorrow to discuss current budget proposals.
