Legislature's Budget Jeopardizes Great Schools
From Virtual Cap Corps, June 25. WEAC members can access the entire
issue on OnWEAC's Members' Only Web site.
Governor Jim Doyle wrote a budget that tackles the state's huge deficit
head on, shares the pain of the budget cuts fairly, and protects the
state's future. Governor Doyle believes that every kid deserves a great
school and that past budget mistakes in Madison should not cost our
kids their future. The Legislature's changes to the governor's budget
put our great schools and our state's economic future in jeopardy.
See how your legislator voted
After all-night sessions in each house, the Assembly and Senate passed
the budget bill leaving the Joint Finance (JFC) package mostly intact.
The Senate passed the bill Wednesday morning, June 18th, on a 17-16
vote with one Democrat, Gary George (D-Milw), breaking party rank to
vote in favor of the budget. Two Republicans, Michael Ellis (R-Neenah)
and Rob Cowles (R-Green Bay) voted against the budget. Minority democrats
attempted more than 100 amendments, every one of which was tabled. The
Assembly worked all night to passage just before 5 am Friday morning,
June 20th. Again, minority democrats made dozens of amendment attempts,
all of which failed. Only two minor changes were made to the Senate
version of the bill. The Senate adopted these changes on June 24, sending
the bill to Governor Doyle. The Senate passage avoided the need for
a conference committee to reconcile any major differences. Visit the
Cyberlobby section of OnWEAC's Members'
Only Web site to see how your legislator voted on key amendments
and on final passage of the state budget.
State budget ready for veto action
Veto decisions are expected to be announced by mid-July. Although it
is possible for the governor to veto the entire budget, it is not clear
if he will exercise that option. If Governor Doyle won't veto the entire
budget, he can use his veto power to beat back the numerous attacks
on public education approved by the Republican-lead legislature.
Item for veto: legislature's move to squander investment in lower
class sizes
Wisconsin's SAGE class-size reduction program serves children in more
than 500 schools throughout the state. SAGE is a smart investment of
taxpayer dollars because it places students in classrooms that work.
The Republican budget pits SAGE against special education students by
encouraging schools to compensate for funding cuts by transferring SAGE
money to special education.
Item for veto: legislature's cut to investment in K-4
More than half of the school districts in Wisconsin have or are planning
to have 4-year-old kindergarten. The Legislature's plan cuts $46 million
over two years for four-year-old kindergarten, leaving nearly 17,000
children out in the cold. Four-year-old kindergarten has been proven
to give kids a more successful start in school. The Republicans cut
funds for young learners in public schools while expanding the private
school voucher program. The voucher program has been unaccountable to
taxpayers and is an unwise use of scarce educational resources during
a tough fiscal crisis.
Item for veto: legislature's scheme that devastates investment
in great schools
While claiming they are increasing aid to schools, Republicans actually
reduced school funds by more than $400 million over the next two years.
Under Governor Doyle's plan, the average per-student revenue limit adjustment
would account for inflation and increase by $237 in 2003-04 and an estimated
$243 in 2004-05. The Legislature's plan reduces the per-student investment
below the rate of inflation to $120 in 2003-04 and $100 in 2004-05.
The end result dramatically undermines local control of schools.
Item for veto: Republican assault on your health care
Republicans sustained their attack on health care bargaining rights.
Democrats in both houses tried to restore current law, but were defeated
in attempts to amend the budget. It is now up to Governor Doyle to use
his veto power to restore health care bargaining rights. Majority Republicans
kept a provision in the budget allowing school districts, technical
college districts and other units of government to unilaterally change
their health insurance carrier. And worse yet, this change would be
a prohibited subject of bargaining. In short, health insurance decisions
would be left to the discretion of the employer. The employer would
determine the quality, the cost and the deductibles of insurance benefits.
WEAC strongly believes that recruiting and maintaining quality staff
is important to great schools. Negotiating decisions about health insurance
is an important part of that process.
Item for veto: freeze on WTCS levy authority
The inclusion of a WTCS levy freeze in the final budget package is extremely
harmful to economic recovery and to the ability of the WTCS to provide
high-skill, high-wage training and education programs. WEAC and the
WTCS Boards Association agree that a levy freeze is an inappropriate
intrusion on local governments that are working hard to meet the state's
economic challenges. The freeze would allow total levies (operations
and debt) to go up by no more than 2.6% per year through July 1, 2006.
This creates no savings toward the state budget deficit but hamstrings
economic recovery that grows the state out of the deficit. Finally,
aid dollars restored to the WTCS cannot be properly utilized for expanding
critical course offerings and creating new classroom labs in areas like
health care training because of the freeze.
Item for veto: expansion of voucher program
The Republicans added a host of non-fiscal policy items to the budget
by expanding the Milwaukee Voucher program. Their budget plan would:
lift the cap on the number of kids; remove the income eligibility criteria;
allow pupils from anywhere to join voucher schools and expand the program
beyond the city to the County of Milwaukee.
QEO repeal floor amendments defeated on party-line votes
For the first time in 10 years, a roll call was taken in both houses
on repeal of the QEO. Democrats in the Senate and Assembly offered floor
amendments to repeal the QEO. Those attempts were defeated on party-line
votes with all the Democrats voting to repeal the QEO and all Republican
voting to keep the QEO. WEAC will continue to pursue total repeal of
the QEO and revenue caps. The governor's veto power does not include
the ability to put repeal of the QEO back into the budget. If your legislator
is a Democrat, please visit the Cyberlobby in OnWEAC's
Members' Only Web site to send a quick e-mail thanking them for
their effort to stand up for great schools by voting to repeal the QEO.
Other items up for veto consideration
Other items available for veto include:
- raising teacher license fees from $100 to $150 to pay for mentoring;
- dictating the make up of a school finance task force; and
- rolling back other state employee benefits.
Prospects for legislative override of veto decisions
Governor Doyle will likely make veto announcements by mid-July. Once
he makes those announcements, the Legislature can attempt to override
his veto decisions one-at-a-time. However, it is not likely that the
Republicans would be successful. Partial or entire vetoes may be overridden
by two-thirds vote of both houses. This is unlikely in the Assembly
(58-39 republican majority with 2 vacancies) and very unlikely in the
Senate (18-15 republican majority).
A note about the Virtual Cap Corps: Some information used for the
Virtual Cap Corps is often taken from The
Wheeler Report, a daily Capitol events and information service subscribed
to by WEAC. Anyone interested in viewing the complete Wheeler Report
Web site should visit www.thewheelerreport.com. The Wheeler Web site
also posts press releases and links to other media coverage of events
at the Capitol.
Contact Bob Burke, WEAC Legislative Program Coordinator, for more information.
Phone 800-362-8034 ext. 254 or by e-mail at burkeb@weac.org.
Posted June 25, 2003