After a Legislative Fiscal Bureau report was conducted to determine the “non-fiscal” portions of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal, the co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee drew criticism for only removing 12 of the LFB’s 58 recommendations from the proposal, none of which included the contentious private voucher expansion and residency law portions.
As a formality, the LFB recommended tnon-fiscal portions of the budget be removed from the budget, but it is the JFC co-chairs’ final decision on which proposals will be discussed in JFC budget hearings.
The co-chairs, state Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and state Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, elected not to allow discussion or voting on the LFB recommendations.
Both the voucher and residency proposals have divided state officials since the budget was introduced Feb. 20.
The voucher proposal, which is designed to allow low-income students enrolled in struggling public schools to access better education through private schools, would expand the state’s system to nine additional school districts. The residency rule, which requires public workers live in the same municipality where they work, would be eliminated the rule statewide if the budget is passed in its current form.
The co-chairs’ decision to table discussion of the non-fiscal portions drew criticism from committee Democrats, including state Reps. Cory Mason, D-Racine, and Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee, who said the committee was denying important discussions and “taking a step back” in the process.
Democratic critics said they would prefer to see all non-fiscal portions introduced as legislation instead of through the budget.
The JFC will hold additional executive hearings in the coming weeks.
