The state budget plan advanced last week by the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee does not increase general sales or income taxes. But it does create a new tax on big oil companies, further increase the tax on cigarettes and raise a boatload of fees - including one for boat registrations.
State Republicans are attacking the majority Democrats for the series of tax and fee increases. But the reality is that the budget gap is too wide to avoid all kinds of tax increases. As a whole, the budget committee's decisions aren't particularly objectionable. Neither are the agency staffing cuts and furloughs that are an unpleasant but necessary fact of life in most sectors of the economy.
But there's plenty to criticize about the budget plan and the process.
First and foremost is that it still includes a number of decisions that are more public policy matters than budgetary items, and thus should be independently debated and weighed on their merits. Some of those decisions we agree with - like allowing some nonviolent felons to be released from prison early to ease state spending and prison overcrowding - and some of those we don't - like the potentially disastrous decision to eliminate the qualified economic (QEO) offer that puts a cap on the increases in pay and benefits for teachers.
There is no budget number attached to the prison release plan, and the financial impact of the QEO removal will be felt by local school districts, not state government. These are just two of far too many examples of the Democrats stuffing public policy matters in the middle of a budget.
The budget also is stuffed with a fair amount of pork. The $46,000 for recycling bins for Wrightstown, and the $50,000 for a shooting range in Eau Claire County are two of the glaring examples of earmark largesse that is an insult to taxpayers and the state workers who are being furloughed or are losing their jobs.
It would be nice to know which lawmakers specifically pushed for each of these earmarks and non-budgetary policy decisions to be included in the spending plan. But the Joint Finance Committee made that accounting next to impossible by doing most of its planning behind closed doors. The committee last week met, and met some more, in executive session hammering out the details of the plan. Then, during a meeting that started at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and lasted until 5:30 a.m. Friday, approved all of the different measures.
The Democrats who promised a more open and collaborative government should be ashamed of themselves. The process thus far has not been open, and the minority Republicans would say that it's been anything but collaborative.
Hopefully, that will change as the process goes to the Legislature, but there's certainly no reason to count on it.
State Republicans are attacking the majority Democrats for the series of tax and fee increases. But the reality is that the budget gap is too wide to avoid all kinds of tax increases. As a whole, the budget committee's decisions aren't particularly objectionable. Neither are the agency staffing cuts and furloughs that are an unpleasant but necessary fact of life in most sectors of the economy.
But there's plenty to criticize about the budget plan and the process.
First and foremost is that it still includes a number of decisions that are more public policy matters than budgetary items, and thus should be independently debated and weighed on their merits. Some of those decisions we agree with - like allowing some nonviolent felons to be released from prison early to ease state spending and prison overcrowding - and some of those we don't - like the potentially disastrous decision to eliminate the qualified economic (QEO) offer that puts a cap on the increases in pay and benefits for teachers.
There is no budget number attached to the prison release plan, and the financial impact of the QEO removal will be felt by local school districts, not state government. These are just two of far too many examples of the Democrats stuffing public policy matters in the middle of a budget.
The budget also is stuffed with a fair amount of pork. The $46,000 for recycling bins for Wrightstown, and the $50,000 for a shooting range in Eau Claire County are two of the glaring examples of earmark largesse that is an insult to taxpayers and the state workers who are being furloughed or are losing their jobs.
It would be nice to know which lawmakers specifically pushed for each of these earmarks and non-budgetary policy decisions to be included in the spending plan. But the Joint Finance Committee made that accounting next to impossible by doing most of its planning behind closed doors. The committee last week met, and met some more, in executive session hammering out the details of the plan. Then, during a meeting that started at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and lasted until 5:30 a.m. Friday, approved all of the different measures.
The Democrats who promised a more open and collaborative government should be ashamed of themselves. The process thus far has not been open, and the minority Republicans would say that it's been anything but collaborative.
Hopefully, that will change as the process goes to the Legislature, but there's certainly no reason to count on it.
