Tuesday, February 17, 2009
6:31 P.M.
Ninety-Ninth Regular Session
STATE OF WISCONSIN
Senate Journal
The Senate met.
The Senate was called to order by President Risser.
The call of roll was dispensed with.
The Chair, with unanimous consent, asked that the proper entries be made in the journal.
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Referrals and Receipt of Committee Reports Concerning Proposed Administrative Rules
The committee on Transportation, Tourism, Forestry, and Natural Resources reports and recommends:
Relating to aquatic invasive species prevention and control grants.
No action taken.
Jim Holperin
Chairperson
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President Risser appointed Senators Schultz and Kreitlow to escort his excellency, the Governor, to the Joint Convention.
President Risser, with unanimous consent, asked that the Senate recess for the purpose of awaiting the Governor's Budget Address in Joint Convention in the Assembly Chambers at 7:00 P.M., and upon the rising of the Joint Convention, adjourn pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1.
6:33 P.M.
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Recess
The Senate proceeded in a body to the Assembly Chamber to meet in Joint Convention to receive the Budget Address.
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In Assembly Chamber in
Joint Convention
6:58 P.M.
President Risser in the chair.
The Committee to wait upon the Governor appeared with his excellency the Governor, who delievered his message as follows:
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Budget Address
"Speaker Sheridan, Speaker Pro Tem Staskunas, President Risser, Majority Leader Decker, Minority Leader Fitzgerald, Our other Minority Leader Fitzgerald, Congressman Ron Kind, Congressman Steve Kagen, Supreme Court Justices, Constitutional Officers, tribal leaders, members of the Cabinet, distinguished guests, members of the Legislature, and fellow citizens of Wisconsin,
When I stood before you three weeks ago, I laid out the effects of the national economic crisis on our state. We all know that our country is in tough times and it's probably going to stay tough for a while. We didn't choose these circumstances. But we will choose how to confront them. Together, we are going to address a budget deficit that stands at $5.7 billion. It will demand hard decisions - but the choices we make will reveal clearly who we are and what we value.
The choices ahead of you aren't the kind that most people run for office hoping to make. I'd bet that no one here campaigned on limiting their favorite program to a five percent cut. But everyone is going to have to share in the sacrifice; and everyone is going to have to have some faith that, if we all work together, we can get through this in a way that will make us stronger in the years ahead.
As I put together the budget I am presenting to you tonight, five principles shaped the decisions I've made.
· First, protect what is most important to Wisconsin - protect education, our health care, our public safety and our ability to create jobs and grow the economy.
· Second, cut what is not essential.
· Third, use the federal money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan wisely.
· Fourth, protect the middle class against tax increases.
· And finally, leave this state in better shape than it was before.
Protecting Priorities
This is clearly a time when we will have to make very deep cuts. This budget makes the largest cuts we've ever seen. It rejects new spending requests, however worthy. At the same time, my first principle is to keep our commitment to Wisconsin's top priorities - priorities that our state has maintained for generations.
S68 To me, that means protecting education. This budget does not fund nearly what was requested, but it provides an increase for our schools when almost everything else is being cut. That has two effects. First, it means we'll invest in students and our teachers, so a second grader gets the education she needs now, not years later when the economy improves. Second, it means that this budget is not just shifting the responsibility of paying for our classrooms to local property taxes. Let me repeat that: By investing in our schools, the state of Wisconsin is protecting the local property tax payer. Property taxes hit families hard - especially families who have lost jobs - and this budget holds the line on property taxes.
This budget does not back away from the gains we have worked so hard to achieve in health care coverage. We are not going to start telling the 70,000 kids who enrolled in BadgerCare Plus this year that, because the economy is bad, they can't see a doctor anymore. We have made Wisconsin a national leader in access to basic, affordable health care coverage. That's not an achievement we can let go of because times are tough.
Our university system is going to have to be more resourceful, but this budget makes sure that more students in Wisconsin have a shot at a higher education and that tuition stays within the means of Wisconsin families.
We also have an obligation to local governments, so that they can continue to keep their streets safe and their neighborhoods strong. Helping to fund police and fire protection is not only the right thing to do; it also keeps local property taxes down. This budget limits the cut to shared revenue to 1 percent. Because we are holding up our end of the bargain, cities, counties and other municipalities will be able to keep their budgets balanced without resorting to big property tax increases.
This budget recognizes that, now more than ever, this is the time to invest in good Wisconsin businesses to help grow jobs. We can strengthen our efforts to advance our workplaces and our workforce - whether it's in agriculture, manufacturing or biotechnology.
Cuts
This budget keeps these commitments strong, and to do so, it makes a lot of tough cuts. These cuts build on our efforts to reduce spending over the last year.
To begin with, we started by cutting state government spending under our current budget by $226 million. As the economy slowed, last spring I cut spending by an additional $270 million. This was followed by freezing state employee bonuses, ordering the sale of 500 state vehicles and slowing grant programs. My cabinet secretaries froze their salaries. In all, we've been able to cut more than $500 million.
This budget will cut $2.2 billion more over the next biennium. That means new requests - even very worthy ones that I support were denied or delayed. For example, the expansion of Family Care which helps older people stay in their homes will be slowed down.
We will cut $931 million from existing programs over the next two years. These are the deepest cuts our state has ever faced. We studied every agency, looking for every possible saving. But even after paring down and slicing away all the agency spending we could find, we still weren't where we needed to be. So - on top of all the other cuts we made - this budget provides for an across-the-board 1 percent reduction in all state spending.
Some will be more affected by these cuts than others. It's important to recognize that state employees will be among the hardest hit. One in 10 state jobs, or 3,600 overall, will be left unfilled. This budget does not provide for any pay raises, and state workers should expect to make higher contributions for health insurance and retirement. I recognize that these cuts are being felt by people who have done everything asked of them, people who have dedicated much of their lives to public service. The sacrifices that they will face are part of the effects of an economic downturn. Sadly, workers across the state - like the GM assembly plant workers in Janesville - are bearing the costs of risky schemes on Wall Street and eight years of bad decisions in Washington.
As deep as the cuts are to our state workforce, I am working hard to avoid lay offs or furloughs, which many other states are already imposing.
Beyond state workers, many others will be affected by the kinds of cuts we will be forced to make. The state will have to trim back its reimbursement rates for services such as medical care. We will have to cut back on worthy grants that go out, grants that I support -- such as those that aid recycling efforts or help prevent the spread of invasive species.
Under this budget, the department of corrections will continue to protect public safety, but it will do so more efficiently. We will ensure that violent offenders will stay in prison while some nonviolent offenders will be offered opportunities for rehabilitation and a chance to resume productive lives in the community.
This budget is designed to make necessary cuts, but avoid unnecessary pain. That's not to say that people won't experience longer lines or some declines in service.
For example, we will stop selling fishing and hunting licenses at many DNR centers, but we will make sure that they are available at the local bait shop or hardware store. We will stop paying someone to hand out brochures at welcome centers, but we will keep welcoming visitors to Wisconsin. We will close DMV centers, but we will make sure people can still easily get titles and registrations - and while we're at it, we can make do with just one license plate per vehicle. We can cut the number of processors at the Department of Revenue, but still get you a speedy refund thanks to more online filing.
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