State Budget Struggles Continue

By WSAU News 

UNDATED (WSAU-WAOW) -- The June 30th deadline for a state budget has come and gone and it appears that there isn't much progress towards passing a budget as of yet.

State Representative Katrina Shankland (D-Stevens Point) tells WAOW Newsline 9 that the fact that there's still no state budget is concerning.

"We have to have a bipartisan effort to not only get the budget done but make sure it's done right," said Shankland. "I'm really concerned about the ramifications, not only on our school districts, but also our local governments and on Wisconsin workers who are relying on those projects."

State Representative Pat Snyder (R-Schofield) tells Newsline 9 one major issue continues to stall talks.

He said, "Our biggest concern was transportation. Coming down to the fact that we didn't want to borrow more bonding wise and go deeper in debt then we already are."

School officials tell Newsline 0 that the lack of a statge budget isn't having an affect on area school districts as of yet.

"It doesn't directly affect us at this particular point because we still don't know, even if the budget were passed, we don't know what our Third Friday count is, we don't know what the equalized value will be," said Thomas Owens with the Stevens Point Area School District.

Bob Tess with the Wausau School District says "If they pass a budget bus September or even the beginning of October it won't throw our process off by too much."

Wisconsin and Connecticut remain the only two states without a state budget passed.

Democrats say they aren't expecting things to move forward until mid-September while Republicans says something could be finalized as soon as next week.