No Runny Eggs

Let’s take a quick run through Gov. Doyle’s veto message (H/T – WisPolitics Budget Blog, which, though it lacks the words that were “Vannah White”ed, has a red-colored summary of each veto’s effects, shall we? For reference’s sake, here’s the Munich Acco…er, Grand Compromise. Late word from WisPolitics is Mike Huebsch won’t even try to override any of this. (“thanks” a lot, Neville) On your marks, get set,….

• The Wisconsin Covenant – This is one of those times I wish we had the specific words that were whacked. While Doyle merely says he doesn’t want to set the financial eligibility requirements at this time (which the Grand Compromise set at Pell Grant/reduced-price school lunch), I find it extraordinarily odd that he mentioned “Wisconsin residents”, especially since he considers illegal aliens that have successfully invaded Wisconsin “Wisconsin residents”.

  Also, let the spending commence; we’re now on the hook for operating the “private” office that will run it.

• Independent Purchase of Telecommunications Services – Message from Doyle to the UW system and the Legislature – How dare you let the UW system spend money they would spend anyway without going through me, Lord Craps. After all, I have a public union to keep happy, I don’t want them to turn on me like they have those that ultimately pay their salaries and benefits.
• Information on Instructors – Nope, can’t let the students know who is going to run the class until they actually show up.</channel_Craps>
• Levy Limits on Technical College Districts – A very modest 4% annual limit on the increase of taxpayer cash to overspenders like MATC just can’t be allowed to fly; after all, their teachers have to continue to earn more than UW professors.</channel_Craps>
• Stewardship Review – Demandment XIII – I am Lord Craps. No one shall question how much land I remove from the property tax rolls in the name of envirowhackoism, or how much taxpayer money I use to do so.
• Muskellunge Fishing Season and Catch and Release Bass Fishing – This is another time I wish I knew which words were axed. While the red-colored glasses review says he’s partially vetoing the provisions to not ensare those wishing to use barbed hooks or live bait to fish for other species during catch-and-release bass and musky seasons, I don’t see what words could be whacked to that end without whacking the entire relevant provisions.
• Quarterly and Annual Reports from the State Fair Park Board – Demandment XIV – I am Lord Craps. No one shall question how much money is spent by the State Fair Park Board.
• Technical Modification to Kenosha County Circuit Court Branch 8 – My mention of this one is my olive branch to Doyle. As the affected position was written, the election to the new-for-2009 branch would have happened in the spring of 2008. This was the fastest way to fix that.
• Demonstration Waiver for Health Opportunity Accounts Under BadgerCare – Demandment XV – I am Lord Craps. No one shall question how much money is spent on BadgerCare Plus.
• Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality and Morbidity – When it comes to sunsets, Doyle believes in the British Empire concept of none.
• Municipality property tax limit – Hang onto your wallets, folks. While Doyle and company believe the munciipalities cannot be expected to find pork to defund this late in the budget process for this year, I fully expect them to find additional pork to fund this year just so the base for next year’s one-year 2%-or-growth “freeze” will be that much higher.
• Reports and Approvals in the transportation budget – Demandment XVI – I am Lord Craps. No one shall question how much money I spend from the transportation fund, or whether I give it all to WEAC.
• Department of Transportation Permits for Activities Along State Trunk
  Highways Within Municipal Limits – Those highways are mine, MINE!</channel_Craps_Daffy_edition>
• Vehicle Immobilization and Impoundment for Repeated Parking Violations – Huzzah part deux. No Denver Boots for the foreseeable future.
• Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee Commuter Rail Extension Project – Night of the Living Dead lives! DAMMIT!

It might just be the time of the night, but the more I think about the “Grand Compromise”, the more I realize those of us who don’t want to be #1 in taxation got rolled. First, let’s go back to the spending numbers, and assume that Healthy and Depopulated Wisconsin was never a serious proposal. Throwing that up against what was passed last night, Robson got 76.3% of her her $1,000,000,000 tax increase and 68.5% of difference in the increase in state-funds spending (the amount that comes directly from our pockets versus what comes from that plus what comes from the federal trough) between her plan and the sop thrown to us in southeast Wisconsin.

What’s worse is something that GOP 1st District vice-chair Bob Geason dug up (H/T – Recess Supervisor). Remember that total spending “reduction” from Doyle’s original budget? When all the bonding gets put into the spending equation, all but $345,091,300 of difference between the original and the Grand Compromise disappears. It’s way too late to come up with the bonding numbers from the three intermediate proposals, but the total bond-and-spend number in the original budget was $60,346,104,400. However, if memory serves, it’s safe to say say that the final bond-and-spend number of $59,998,013,100 is closer to Doyle’s original proposal and probably the H&DW-less Senate proposal than the Assembly “sop”.

Revisions/extensions (7:06 am 10/24/2007) – I took the time to make a quick run-through of both the Senate and Assembly plans for bonding. Adding the Senate-approved bonding to the Senate H&DW-less plan made that plan’s bond-and-spend number $61,292,741,000 (with H&DW, it would have been $68,892,741,000), and adding the Assembly-approved bonding to the Assembly’s “sop” plan made that plan’s bond-and-spend number $59,036,762,500. In short, Doyle got 73.4% of the difference in the total spending-and-bonding between his original plan and the Assembly plan, and Robson got 57.4% of the total spending-and-bonding between her plan and the Assembly plan, at least if you take out H&DW. Disgusting.

As Wile E. Coyote would say, “Brilliance! Sheer, unadulterated brillance!”

Revisions/extensions part 2 (7:07 pm 10/24/2007) – The tax increases were recalculated after I left for Madison early this morning.

Mike Huebsch, RINO member of the Party-In-Government and speaker of the Assembly, got 60 votes for the Munich Acco…er, Grand Compromise. Since the original tax-and-spend party runs the Senate and occupies the governor’s mansion, it’s all over but the packing.

For those of you interested in finding out the remainder of the RINO members of P-I-G sold us taxpayers out, they are – Joan Ballweg (41st Assembly District), Brett “Soybean” Davis (80th), Jeff Fitzgerald (39th; the Fitzgerald family Turkey Day dinner ought to be interesting), Donald Friske (35th), Eugene Hahn (47th), Jake Hines (42nd), Dan Meyer (34th), Terry Moulton (68th), Jeffrey Mursau (36th), John Murtha (29th), Terry Musser (92nd), Lee Nerison (96th), Alvin Ott (3rd), Kevin Petersen (40th), Jerry Petrowski (86th), Kitty Rhoades (30th), Scott Suder (69th), Gary Tauchen (6th), John Townsend (52nd), Karl Van Roy (90th), Mary Williams (87th) and Jeffrey Wood (67th). For those counting at home, that, including Huebsch, is less than half the Pubbie caucus and pretty much the entire outstate caucus. I could’ve swore there was a caucus rule that said more than half the caucus had to agree to bring it up for a vote; I would like to know who simply put on a good show, or alternatively, whether Huebsch decided to screw over most of the Pubbies.

I invite each and every one of those listed above, including and starting with Mike Huebsch, to renounce their Republican affiliation and just join the ‘Rats since they’re already 90.9% there.

Revisions/extensions (7:58 pm 10/23/2007) – While the Senate also passed this 18-15, the “Pubbies” know their politics a little bit better, as every one of them rejected it. As expected, East Side Plale voted for this to try to avoid a repeat of Double Vote Riley in 2010.

Now, on to Craps and the veto pen. Any takers on him excising the few good things while not taking out the pork?

Revisions/extensions part 2 (9:38 am 10/27/2007) – Had Mary Williams from the wrong district.

Revisions/extensions (5:36 pm 10/23/2007) – Upon reflection, and a bit of a “nudge” from Jib, I’ve taken out a cheap shot on those of you north of Hwy. 10. I apologize for that.

I knew about the fees that shocked, SHOCKED the folks at 4th and State, which never really disappeared from any of the budgets. I am not even really surprised that outstate Wisconsin is getting yet another 4-lane bypass that is not needed in the form of Highway 23 in Fond du Lac County (I do believe I said, “Gotta keep on building those 4-lane bypasses of every Podunk last north-Wisconsin town.” However, Christian Schneider delved in and found all sorts of “small-time” pork. Some of my “favorites”:

Short Course to Introduce Chinese Students to the Wisconsin Idea (p. 85) – What, the ChiComs don’t already know all about taxing and spending to death?

The Film Production Tax Credit for $1,000,000 (p. 113) – Ever since they took the stubs off the ends of the Hoan Bridge, Wisconsin hasn’t been on Hollywood’s radar screen. I mean, Scott Walker couldn’t even get them in to blow up the whaling wall.

$250,000 grant to the Painters and Allied Trades District Council 7 of the AFL-CIO for “training” (p. 447) – So that’s how Craps refunds his campaign contributors. Paging Mr. Biskupic. Paging US Attorney Steve Biskupic. Since that particular local is in New Berlin, and AG Kathleen Fal…er, JB Van Hollen won’t dig into anything related to Craps, you may as well go out with a bang.

Again, everybody who votes for this abomination of a budget need to be replaced forthwith.

(H/Ts – Owen and WisPolitics)

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch released a memo from the LFB comparing spending increases over the FY2007 portion of budget doubled for the various budget plans. The middle chart, showing just the General Purpose Revenue increases without the new segergated funds that would have been created in the first 3 proposals (the governor’s original, the Joint Finance Committee, and the Senate’s), is completely worthless because those new segergated funds disappeared starting with the Assembly’s proposal, but allow me to repost the relevant numbers from the other two charts for you:

All spending, which includes all that cash from the federal taxpayer trough (FY2007 base times 2 – $53,673,360,200):
– Governor’s original plan – An increase of $4,563,146,100, for a 2-year percentage of 8.5% and an annualized percentage of 4.2%.
– JFC’s plan – $4,440,511,200, 8.3% over 2 years, 4.1% annualized.
– Senate’s plan (with Healthy-and-Depopulated Wisconsin) – $12,433,308,700 (and the $7,600,000,000 portion that would have been spent on H&PW is just for the last 6 months), 23.2% over 2 years, 11.0% annualized.
– Assembly’s plan – $2,628,330,200, 4.9% over 2 years, 2.4% annualized.
– Doyle’s first revision (with additions made by the Senate, including the transportation budget not included in Doyle’s revision) – $4,452,896,700, 8.3% over 2 years, 4.1% annualized.
– The Munich Acco…er, Grand Compromise – $3,561,071,400, 6.6% over 2 years, 3.2% annualized

Spending from GPR + “new SEG” funds, which are funds that directly to Madison, and which does not and would not include H&DW (FY2007 base times 2 – $26,622,083,800):
NOT in the memo and included just for comparison because this deals with spending, not taxation – Growth in taxation without a single vote for “new” taxes or fees (to the nearest $100 million) – $1,200,000,000, 4.5% over 2 years, 2.2% annualized.
– Governor’s original plan – $1,633,079,100, 6.1% over 2 years, 3.0% annualized.
– JFC’s plan – $1,618,446,400, 6.1% over 2 years, 3.0% annualized.
– Senate’s plan (again, H&PW is documented above and not here) – $1,776,652,900, 6.7% over 2 years, 3.3% annualized.
– Assembly’s plan – $1,193,792,900, 4.5% over 2 years, 2.2% annualized.
– Doyle’s first revision (with additions made by the Senate, including the transportation budget not included in Doyle’s revision) – $1,614,013,700, 6.1% over 2 years, 3.0% annualized.
– The Munich Acco…er, Grand Compromise – $1,593,003,100 – 6.0% over 2 years, 3.0% annualized.

I resubmit that it is an all-but-complete win for Doyle and the ‘Rats. While it is true that total spending is significantly less than what was originally proposed by both Doyle and the JFC, almost all of that is a result of taking less from the taxpayers of the entire country. The spending of Wisconsin taxpayer dollars is only $25,413,300 less than what came out of the Joint Finance Committee and $40,046,000 less than what Doyle wanted in the first place. To contrast, that spending is $399,210,200 more than what the Assembly wanted.

My calculator shows that Doyle got 90.9% of the difference. That, combined with both the present and future tax increases to pay for the excesses of Doyle’s spending in this and previous budgets, gives the ‘Rats a knockout win, and that’s before the worse-than-worthless KRM is added in.

Revisions/extensions (12:40 am 10/24/2007) – Forgot a few zeroes in the H&DW cost.