Doyle Calls Special Session To Break Deadlock
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WEAC President Bell welcomes Doyle’s Special Session, calls for cooperation  WEAC President Mary Bell issued this statement following the State Senate and Assembly leadership’s response to Governor Jim Doyle’s announcement that he is calling a special session of the Legislature to settle the state budget bill: “The 2007-09 state budget is more than three months past due. Governor Doyle is right to try to break the state budget stalemate by calling the Legislature into special session, and I’m very happy to see that the Senate leadership has publicly embraced this opportunity to move forward. “ Wisconsin needs a comprehensive state budget that invests wisely in children, educators, families and communities. I urge all of the members of the Legislature to put their partisan interests and personal ambitions aside for the sake of the people who live, work and learn in Wisconsin. “As someone who is in touch with the men and women who work in public school classrooms throughout our state, I make this plea to the Assembly leadership: ‘The future of our children and communities hangs in the balance. Wisconsin cannot afford for you to miss this chance to pass a budget.’” |
In an effort to break the state budget stalemate, Governor Jim Doyle announced Tuesday (October 9, 2007) that he would call the Legislature into special session next week to introduce a new version of the 2007-09 state budget that reflects negotiations between the leaders of the Republican-controlled Assembly and the Democrat-controlled Senate.
In recent days, Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem) and Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson (D-Beloit) have been meeting with Governor Doyle’s office to try to reach a compromise on the two competing versions of the state budget approved by each house. While Robson has expressed optimism that a comprehensive budget deal could be reached, Republican leaders in the Assembly raised serious doubts that the two sides could reach an agreement any time soon. Some Democrats have speculated that the extreme right-wing members of the Assembly Republican caucus are pressuring their leadership to back away from offers on the table, preferring a “no state budget” option.
The impact of the inaction in the Legislature is significant to education in Wisconsin. The Department of Public Instruction on Monday must certify state school aid amounts to school districts for the 2007-08 school year. With no budget agreement, the DPI will base its calculations of state aid to school districts on last year’s numbers. Under this scenario, school districts will see no increase in state aid, but revenue caps increase by $264 per pupil under current law. That would either lead to sharp increases in property taxes or major cuts in programs and services.
Robson welcomed the governor’s call for a special session. “By not allowing their negotiating team to compromise, Assembly Republicans have abdicated their responsibility of leadership,” she said in a written statement. “They have left an indelible, black historic mark on the budget process that affects every resident of this state.”
”This budget is 100 days late because Assembly Republicans signaled all the way back in April that they had no interest in doing a state budget,” she said. “It's October and some Republicans are still applauding and celebrating this embarrassing stalemate.”
She said Senate Democrats have been flexible in a number of areas: offering $500 million in spending cuts in their latest offer, taking Healthy Wisconsin off the table, taking the real estate transfer fee off the table, and other provisions.
”The response from Republican leadership to our overtures has been nothing but political posturing and delay. The silence is deafening,” she said.
” We owe it to our schools, our communities, and our colleges, our police officers, firefighters, teachers, and property taxpayers to go to the floor next week and get this job done,” she said.
Posted October 9, 2007