All news
Governor signs backward budget
Posted: 6/27/2011 1:25:24 PM
Governor Walker over the weekend signed the 2011-2013 budget, bringing millions in cuts and lost revenue to public education and other services. The budget makes historic cutbacks for public schools across Wisconsin, setting our state backward and disinvesting in the successful gains public school students have made.
For more details about the budget, click here.
For a list of vetoes Walker made to the budget, see below.
Walker vetoes to state budget
Five-year vesting for Wisconsin Retirement System Benefits: Because of a partial veto, public employees will have to work five years prior to being eligible for WRS payments of any kind (either formula benefit or money purchase annuity benefit). The governor’s veto means that public workers who leave their jobs before accumulating at least five years of service lose all of their retirement benefits.
Elimination of Joint Committee on Finance authority to postpone telecommunications services prohibition: The budget passed by the Legislature provides for the privatization of the Wisconsin Network System (WiscNet) by July 1, 2013. The Legislature included a provision allowing the JFC to delay implementation of this, if it elected to do so. The governor’s veto takes this option away from the JFC.
Submission of data for Choice Program eligibility determinations: The budget passed by the Legislature changes the income eligibility requirements for the voucher program (raising the income threshold to 300 percent of poverty). The original budget required that voucher schools submit the income data to the Department of Revenue for review. The governor’s veto means that the data will go to the Department of Public Instruction instead.
For more information on the vetoes, see this story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.