Christian Schneider, who besides me is the charter member of the Scott McCallum Fan Club, wonders how the state budget situation would be different had Scott McCallum beat Jim Doyle back in 2002:
During his brief tenure, McCallum proposed a number of items that, had they passed, would have made the current recession infinitely easier to deal with. In his initial budget, in which he faced a $600 million deficit, McCallum proposed capping general fund spending to the same rate that tax revenues increase during a biennium….
In the same budget, McCallum proposed depositing 50% of any unintended revenues into a budget stabilization fund, in the event tax receipts fell short in the future….
Perhaps most importantly, McCallum made real cuts to real ongoing state programs – a decision which may have cost him his governorship. In the 2002 budget repair bill, McCallum proposed phasing out the state’s Shared Revenue program, in which the state sends $1 billion per year to local governments.
Related to that, Christian introduces us to Doyle’s new best friend – Rosy Scenario. I guess the difference in acceptable-to-Craps tax assumptions between exiting a mild recession (5% from McCallum, which is the 20-year-average) and in the midst of a devastating one is less than 0.5 percentage points.
