June 16, 2011
Rebuilding Wisconsin
Legislative column by Rep. Jeremy
Thiesfeldt
Wisconsin
has a $3.6 billion structural deficit due to unrestrained spending sprees
and a lack of focus on job creation in the past decade. Prior legislation
along with the passage of the 2011-13 State Budget will reverse this trend.
The
message we have already sent has helped create over 30,000 jobs and
lowered Wisconsin’s and Fond du Lac’s unemployment rate. Chief
Executive Magazine in a survey of more than 500 nationwide CEOs put
Wisconsin 24th best for business, up from 41st in the 2010 rankings.
Also, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce has released their annual
state Economic Outlook Survey, and the results are promising. It showed
88 percent of those surveyed have a favorable view of our business
climate--an astonishing 78 percent improvement over last year. The
numbers aren't surprising and will continue.
The passing of the State Budget is a positive and extraordinary turning
point in Wisconsin’s history. On Thursday, June 16, I voted for a
budget that eliminates a $3.6 billion structural deficit to a projected
surplus of $306 million. It also provides certainty to families with a
permanent property tax freeze for the first time in our state’s
history. This budget does not raise income taxes or fees. It provides
a template for the future by budgeting the way we all must:
prioritizing, not spending more than we make, and investing in our
future.
Additionally, this budget contains bold principles that will help
rebuild Wisconsin’s finances in a sustainable fashion. No longer will
state lawmakers balance the budget using accounting tricks or gimmicks,
raiding segregated funds, borrowing billions, raising taxes, carrying a
structural deficit, or filling the gap with one-time federal stimulus
money.
There
were many difficult but necessary decisions made. Everything was on the
table and none of the decisions were made easily. Many good compromises
were made before the final product came for a vote.
An example is education.
Parents deserve to have more options in teaching their children. I
support the school choice expansion for Milwaukee and Racine. In
addition, Republicans showed that education remains a top priority by
inserting an additional $116 million dollars back into the governor’s
budget for public schools. Both issues were provision that I can
support.
Our government has grown
too large and we have become too reliant on it. The evidence of this
has been the public’s growing inability to foot the bill. This budget
makes the difficult choices by trimming or eliminating programs that are
unnecessary or beyond our means. I will continue working to right-size
state government, grow the private sector, and hold the door open for
businesses looking to invest in our state. Our state is laying the
groundwork for the rest of the nation. We will no longer fill our
children’s future with financial road blocks. Instead we have taken the
reins, fulfilled the promises of last November, and set us on a
“Forward” path again.
Budget Article that may interest
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