State Democrats accused Gov. Scott Walker of inflating the state’s debt Tuesday after the governor decided to delay a debt repayment of $108 million.
The report, produced by the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, outlines the proposed payment restructuring on the state debt, which was previously scheduled to be paid off by May 2015. The governor’s proposal would increase the overall payment costs to $544,900 in 2015-’16 and $18.7 million in 2016-’17, including interest.
Walker’s proposal brought opposition from Democrats who serve on the state’s Joint Committee on Finance. They criticized the governor for his history of borrowing to balance the state budget to pay for infrastructure and for the tax cuts.
In addition, Democrats argued for what they said was the position of taxpayers, seeing that $90 million remains for this debt.
“Rather than paying the state’s bills, Gov. Walker is once again resorting to risky and financially irresponsible borrowing schemes,” state Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, said in a Tuesday statement. “This latest accounting gimmick kicks the can further down the road and will end up costing taxpayers millions more.”
This type of restructuring does not need legislative authorization. Walker’s administration can directly communicate with Department of Administration Capital Finance officials to not make the anticipated payment.
Pushing back the deadline of debt payments allows for additional lines of credit to be established but at the expense of steeper interests rates over a longer period of time, according to the report.
