YEA! SPEND IT LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW.
Posted on 07/28/2002 8:59:57 AM PDT by SheLion
MADISON - Gov. Scott McCallum signed a bill Friday that will use ALL of the money from the sale of Wisconsin's tobacco-settlement payments to fix a $1.1 billion budget deficit.
The bill also overhauls Wisconsin's campaign finance laws for the first time in 25 years and makes across-the-board cuts to state government agencies, while preserving aid to local governments this year.
The measure McCallum signed makes adjustments to the budget for the two-year period that ends June 30, 2003. The budget was thrown out of balance by an economic slump and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The Legislature was called back into session to take up the budget-adjustment bill because the state constitution requires the budget to be balanced.
"We solved our most pressing problem without raising taxes," McCallum said after signing the bill in his Capitol office.
But the legislation won't solve all of Wisconsin's budget problems.
The state is projected to have a $2.8 billion deficit for the 2003-05 budget because its spending commitments -- including two-thirds of the cost of public education -- will exceed its expected revenue.
The bill makes no cuts to local government aid in the current two-year budget. It calls for a $40 million reduction in 2004 to the more than $1 billion that counties, cities, towns and villages use each year to pay for services such as garbage pickup and police and fire protection.
The cut is minor compared with the governor's proposal to eliminate that aid entirely within two years.
"We've come a long way from the prospect of losing shared revenue," said Doug Finn, Douglas County Board chairman.
But he's only cautiously optimistic at this point because shared revenue could end up back on the table when the Legislature begins addressing a projected $1.3 billion budget deficit next year.
As long as the state honors its commitment through 2003, the county will be OK for now, Finn said. By waiting until 2004 to make cuts in shared revenue, it provides the county with time to plan for expected cuts, he said.
In 2004, Douglas County is expected to lose $200,469 of the $2.9 million in shared revenue it receives.
Knowing Superior could have lost $9 million in shared revenue if the Legislature had accepted Gov. Scott McCallum's initial proposal to end shared revenue by 2004, Mayor Sharon Kotter said, she was "absolutely" relieved to hear the latest news.
While the city is expected to lose $125,920 of its $9 million in shared revenue in 2004, officials had been worried about what could happen if the governor vetoed the Legislature's proposals on shared revenue.
The city doesn't receive its shared-revenue payment until November, but because the money was budgeted it was spent, Kotter said.
"If something happened -- we were worried we may not get it," Kotter said. "We are already looking at next year's budget and have to make cuts." She said she was a little apprehensive for a while, knowing McCallum could veto the Legislature's proposed reforms for shared revenue.
"We're happy to hear he left shared revenue alone and left in the incentive for shared services."
Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, was unavailable for comment Friday afternoon.
The bill also sets aside $45 million from the aid to reward local governments that save money by consolidating services.
The measure uses an additional $825 million generated from the state's sale of 25-years-worth of payments Wisconsin was scheduled to receive under a settlement with tobacco companies to fill the deficit.
The state already had planned to use $450 million from the sale to balance its books. The bill uses the rest of the money from the almost $1.3 billion it made off the sale this spring to fill the deficit.
McCallum has the power to veto any part of the revised budget bill.
He decided to keep intact a campaign finance-reform package, though none of the changes will affect this year's election.
The reforms include a new 30-day window before elections in which independent groups must report to the state if they are going to run ads advocating the support or defeat of a candidate. They also have to report how much they plan to spend on the ads.
The bill creates a public financing system for candidates, paid for through a $20 checkoff on tax returns.
YEA! SPEND IT LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW.
What will they do in the years to come? Raise cigarette taxes AGAIN?!
What is McCallum's ultimate goal and how does it compare against what was big government's objective with this program? How do the two measure up in the end?
Why, sue the crap out of the tobacco companies again.
Worked before.
No, sue McDonald's!
They did the same thing in Missouri - but they still have items in the upcoming election to raise taxes. In Missouri, legislators traded $1 billion in long-term tobacco settlement revenues for $530 million in near term borrowing -- surely one of the most irresponsible moves in state history.
They have billion coming to them in future payments, but they piss half of it away so they can spend it now.
These people are totally reckless and shortsighted. We are governed by IDIOTS.
Remeinds me of an old quote, can't remember who said it...
"Giving money and power to politicians is like giving a teenage boy your car keys and a bottle of whisky"
You've got a GREAT POINT!!!
Wait a couple years, when they have no MSA money and still can't balance their budget. What will they do THEN? Maine almost took the lump sum, too. Not sure if Gov. King will do it to bail himself out or not. But this money has turned the states into absolute gluttons.
Yet, they say they want "smoke free everything." If it wasn't for the smokers, they wouldn't HAVE this money.
Hope they're not expecting to get this moolah from the Feds....
What?
Actually, the budget was thrown out of balance by Chuck Chvala and government spending run amuck, aided by a bunch of brain dead Senate Democrats who never saw a good, mediocre, or stupid idea they didn't like and wouldn't fund, and the do-nothing RINOs who just grab their ankles and raise their butts in the air every budget season.
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