No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

$69 million in spending cuts? Bravo Sierra

by @ 8:20 on May 13, 2008. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

So, the bipartisan Party-In-Government is about to “fix” a $652.3 million deficit in the current budget with, at least in part, what is claimed to be $69 million in reduced spending. Let’s take a look at what the state spent out of the general fund last fiscal year (numbers courtesy the Department of Administration) and what they’re going to spend out of it this fiscal year and next fiscal year, both with the present budget and with the semi-negotiated “fix” (numbers courtesy the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, with a $125 million upward adjustment to the “fix” for school payments pushed into the next budget, a net $121 million upward adjustment related to the tobacco re-refinancing, and a $69 million downward adjustment for the unspecified cuts the LFB considers “revenue”):

General spending in FY2007 doubled – $26.662 billion
General spending in FY2008-FY2009 current budget (as of now) – $27.952 billion
Net increase of spending in the current budget over FY2007 doubled – $1.290 billion (or if you prefer an averaged annual increase, $645 million per year)
General spending in FY2008-FY2009 “fix” (includes a net $177 million in upward adjustments outlined above) – $27.969 billion
Net increase of spending in the “fix” over FY2007 doubled – $1.307 billion (or if you prefer the averaged annual increase, $653.5 million per year)
Net increase in spending in the “fix” over the current budget – $17 million

That’s right, sports fans. The bipartisan Party-In-Government is planning on using a self-created budget crisis to increase spending even more. It’s time to send this barrel of pork back to the drawing board.

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