Third, to help schools reduce the cost of health care … and to guarantee the best teachers for our children … my budget will repeal the outdated, inflexible QEO.
Next, my budget reforms school transportation. The morning bus ride may seem inconsequential to some, but understand that some rural communities spend more than $1,000 a year on each student's transportation. $1,000.
And while the state's transportation fund helps pay the cost of an adult who rides the bus to work, not a penny is available for helping get kids on the bus to school.
That's why tonight, I propose using the transportation fund to support school transportation. And we'll provide a $16 million increase targeted at districts that must take students the longest distances between their homes and schools.
It's time to ease the burden on property taxpayers, and let schools focus on what they do best-–educating our kids.
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I think there's one thing every Republican and Democrat can agree on – it is time the federal government fulfilled its promise to fund its 40 percent share of special education costs.
Every day President Bush and Congress refuse to fulfill their obligation to special ed is another day Wisconsin property taxpayers are stuck with the bill. It's unfair, irresponsible and must stop.
Wisconsin's kids shouldn't be allowed to fail just because Washington is failing them.
And so tonight, I propose a $15 million investment in special education, with a particular focus on school districts that have individual students with exceptionally high costs.
These reforms and investments are significant. But the fundamental issue is whether our schools have the resources to provide quality education to every child. Across Wisconsin, communities have been forced to close schools, increase class sizes, and eliminate courses like advanced math, music, art, and physical education.
And there is growing tension between property taxpayers and the education system.
Instead of communities uniting to build and fund the best schools for their children and grandchildren, education has become a divisive issue, too frequently pitting families with young kids against those struggling to afford higher property taxes.
We need to resolve this tension. But the answer is not to simply cut education.
In Wisconsin, we've set a goal for the state to fund two-thirds of the cost of every child's education. Because of fiscal mismanagement and overspending by previous administrations and legislatures, two years ago there was not enough money.
But because revenues have grown, and because of savings we've achieved, in my budget we will meet this goal – and provide two-thirds funding for local schools.
Doing so will mean an historic commitment to public education – an additional $850 million investment in Wisconsin's future.
Not only will it hold property taxes down, but it will mean stronger schools for our children.
There's another commitment we have to keep, and that's shared revenue.
Two years ago, I inherited a $3.2 billion deficit. I also inherited a budget that gutted shared revenue. But I provided almost two billion dollars to fund shared revenue last time around, and tonight, I am proud to announce that my budget fully funds shared revenue.
This is a huge commitment to local communities … but it is a commitment we must keep if we are serious about holding the line on property taxes.
In the 1990's property taxes in Wisconsin went up by two billion dollars. By going on a state spending spree and auctioning off the tobacco settlement for pennies on the dollar, the Legislature only made the problem worse.
But now, with dramatic cuts in state government … with two-thirds funding for local education … with a strong commitment to shared revenue … we are poised to deliver historic relief to Wisconsin property taxpayers.
With my budget, we will freeze property taxes.
My property tax freeze will prevent $900 million of property tax increases and save the average homeowner more than $330 in the next two years.
My property tax freeze treats local communities as partners, not enemies. Through investments in schools and local governments, new incentives and bonuses, and tough limits in the law, my plan will achieve the same goal as the Republican plan … freezing property taxes.
But not only that, my property tax freeze is responsible. It protects education, promotes economic development, and preserves vital services like police and firefighters.
Here's how it works:
Under my budget, the state will live up to its commitments – fully fund shared revenue, provide two-thirds funding for education, and hold the line on state taxes. In return, we'll ask local governments and schools to do the same – hold the levy to the same overall level as the Republican plan without harming schools and services.
My freeze strictly limits the amount a community can raise taxes to just inflation and a percentage of their new growth. Communities will be able to maintain quality services while dealing with rising prices and growing populations, but they will have to set priorities just like we're doing at the state level.
Not only does my freeze set firm limits on property taxes, but it also provides more than $100 million worth of incentives for communities that hold property taxes even lower.
As part of this plan, we're reforming the Expenditure Restraint Program and expanding it so counties can participate. While the old program gave communities rewards for limiting spending, the new program will reward them for doing what actually matters to taxpayers – and that's limiting taxes.
My plan also encourages cooperation between communities, because it recognizes the reality that economic growth is regional. Communities should work together to promote economic development, not compete to see who can raise taxes more because a new business opens within their boundaries. And urban centers must expand and improve their services to support growing suburban areas.
We'll also protect technical colleges, which are vital to economic development. They provide young workers with the training to get that first job, and they help older workers who've lost their job get the skills to find a new one. Technical colleges account for a small percentage of property tax bills, and they already have limits on the amount their levies can increase. My plan requires them to continue to abide by those limits – without imposing new ones that could end up costing our workers and hurting our economy.
The state budget lasts for two years. Therefore, it's only responsible that the freeze should also last for two years – because we should not put a freeze on communities longer than we can guarantee our funding commitment to them.
Last session, the Legislature sent me a property tax freeze. But it wasn't a responsible freeze. It would have meant a $400 million cut to our schools alone.
This is a moment of truth for the Legislature. The choice is up to you.
If you send me another bill that freezes out our schools, our police and our firefighters, you will force me to take out my veto pen and make you start over. But if you pass a responsible property tax freeze – one that protects taxpayers and their priorities – we can find common ground.
Let's show the people of this state that property tax relief is more than just a campaign slogan.
Democrats, Republicans – we have a job to do. Let's work together and get it done.
In the past year, we've created almost 70,000 jobs in Wisconsin. We've emerged as the national leader in creating new manufacturing jobs.
The economic news is just another sign that smart investments and not raising taxes were the right choices two years ago … and they are the right choices again today.
We also know that some areas of our state are still struggling. My budget will create a new $5 million grant program to attract businesses to communities that haven't done as well. For individuals still looking for work, we're providing $2 million to improve placement services that help them find new jobs.
It is a fundamental Wisconsin value: every person who is willing to work should have access to a job and the means to support a family.
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To help workers and businesses become more competitive, we're also creating a new $5 million job training initiative. We'll pay the training costs for businesses that create significant numbers of new jobs, invest in new equipment, or provide higher wages. Because building and maintaining our infrastructure is vital to our economy, my budget includes a robust transportation program – about $4.4 billion over the next two years.
That represents a 16 percent increase over the last budget, and the largest overall investment in transportation in Wisconsin history.
My budget transfers $250 million from the transportation fund to support our investment in schools and other key priorities. With such a large transportation budget, and so many pressing needs in our state, it's the only responsible thing to do.
But make no mistake: our investments are comprehensive – air, rail, harbors, highways, and mass transit. And we'll provide a $6 million increase to serve elderly and disabled citizens.
Under my Administration, we've permanently protected more than 42,000 acres of pristine natural areas
– including land in almost every county in Wisconsin.
My budget includes new funding to protect our groundwater from agricultural runoff, provides stronger oversight of stormwater discharges into our lakes and streams, ensures that Aztalan State Park will remain open, combats the rise of invasive aquatic species, and reverses cuts to our parks, trails and visitor centers.
It also invests in new information technology to continue the progress we've made in regulatory reform
– proving that you can be both pro-environment and pro-jobs.
Hunting and conservation groups have asked us for modest fee increases – at most, the cost of a case of beer. It will fix an expected $20 million deficit in our fish and wildlife fund, allowing us to hire 30 more wardens, restore fish and pheasant stocking, renew leases on 30,000 acres of public hunting grounds, and guarantee the hunting and fishing legacy that is the birthright of every Wisconsin citizen.
Now, let's talk about the University of Wisconsin. And there's a line I've been waiting to say since the last time we met:
For the first time in more than 10 years, my budget will add more state money to the UW and financial aid than it will to the Department of Corrections.
In the past two years, we've worked with the University to add 300 instructional staff to meet the demands of a growing enrollment and increase the number of college degrees. Now, we'll reduce the number of administrators by 200 … but increase faculty by another 125.
With a new Star Faculty initiative, the University will be able to pay more competitive salaries so we don't lose our best and brightest to other institutions.
The University of Wisconsin system is the finest in the nation … and we need to make sure it also remains one of the most affordable.
That's why this budget will hold tuition increases between 5 and 7 percent.
My budget ensures that Wisconsin will rank near the bottom in the Big Ten. Not in football, but in tuition.
To protect students whose talent exceeds their ability to pay, financial aid will increase at an even faster rate – a 34 percent increase, or $23 million.
Together with the last budget, we will have more than doubled financial aid for UW students since I took office.
On top of that, my budget significantly expands the college tax deduction, so Wisconsin families can deduct the full cost of college up to the average price of tuition at the University of Wisconsin.
I came to the Governor's office after 12 years as Attorney General. But I think the experience that prepared me the most was being a parent.
Any parent can tell you that there is no more life-altering experience than looking into your child's eyes for the first time, and understanding the awesome responsibility you have for their future.
As a parent, you have take stock of your priorities, plan ahead, sacrifice and save money for their education. You do whatever it takes to keep them safe, healthy, happy, and ready to seize all the opportunities of life.
Those are the priorities of Wisconsin's families, and they should be the priorities of Wisconsin's budget.
As part of our Kids First plan, we'll make the investments that support families and help children get off to the right start.
Nine Wisconsin counties offer home visits and parent education services to new families as part of a pilot program. Kids in this program were 30 percent more likely to be immunized, half as likely to go to the emergency room, and one quarter as likely to be abused. It's time to take this effort statewide.
My budget funds a new initiative that, when fully implemented, will make home visits available to every new parent in Wisconsin. In the first phase, we are investing $1.2 million to provide home visits to families of children most at risk.
We're increasing mental health and substance abuse screening for families in the Child Welfare system, and expanding access to treatment.
We're increasing reimbursements for foster families, and expanding Medicaid coverage so that foster children don't lose their health insurance when they turn 18. We're creating an independent Ombudsman for Milwaukee Child Welfare – to bring the system more oversight and accountability.
This budget implements my Quality Care for Quality Kids initiative. We will rate the quality of child care centers on a five star system, and make those ratings available to parents. We'll use those ratings in the state's subsidized child care program for low-income families – creating a powerful incentive to provide high quality child care.
My budget also protects Wisconsin's bedrock commitment to SeniorCare and BadgerCare.
Because of the way Medicaid is structured – and because Washington wants to back away from its commitments – SeniorCare and BadgerCare face real dangers in the coming years.
The federal government is forcing states to choose between funding education or funding Medicaid – and that is dead wrong.
Medicaid is supposed to be a partnership between states and the federal government to provide health care to our most vulnerable people. Unfortunately for Wisconsin taxpayers, "partnership" means about as much to the federal government as "sportsmanship" means to Randy Moss.
For some people in Washington, Medicaid "reform" means making it easier for states to cut people off. That's not reform; it's retreat …and America deserves better.
Along with Governors of both parties, I'm going to keep fighting for national Medicaid reforms that will make the system more flexible and provide the resources our people need.
In the meantime, we're doing everything possible to manage this difficult problem in Wisconsin.
We created a preferred drug list to save money on prescriptions. We saved money on medical equipment though bulk purchases. We went to a single provider for eyeglasses, and a single provider for hearing aids. We expanded the use of managed care. We moved people out of costly institutions so they could live independently in the community. And we saved taxpayers $93 million by re-bidding a costly Medicaid contract – something previous administrations hadn't done in a decade.
But even with all these reforms, we still face a significant deficit in Medicaid.
To balance this deficit – and avoid cuts in education – my budget does the following:
First, we're launching a new initiative to reduce medical errors. In a system that still relies on handwritten prescriptions and medical records, mistakes are all too common. By investing $10 million to promote the use of technology, like computerized medical records, we'll help avoid mistakes that end up costing taxpayers and sometimes costing lives.
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Second, we'll generate an additional $122 million in new federal revenue by imposing an assessment on providers. Many providers will benefit because those funds will be used to raise reimbursement rates.
Like dozens of other states, we have been forced to take this action because of the bizarre rules the federal government has set up for Medicaid. Unfortunately, it's one of the only ways a state can get additional funding and avoid having to cut people off.
Third, we'll transfer about $180 million from the Patients' Compensation Fund, which will have grown by almost $220 million over four years. An independent analysis recently showed that the fund has at least $200 million more than it needs to cover any imaginable claims.
Again, this is a choice I'd rather not make. But without those funds, we'd be faced with alternatives like ending SeniorCare and BadgerCare for more than 180,000 people. It's simply indefensible to say we have three quarters of a billion dollars sitting in a fund that's totally off limits – even the interest is totally off limits – and so as a result we're going to take people's health care away.
Fourth, we're launching a significant reform of long-term care, which accounts for more than half of Medicaid spending.
