Rising Sun Sheds Dim Light on a Pork-Infused Budget
While most of you were sound asleep late Friday night through Saturday morning last week, my Assembly colleagues and I worked through the long night on last-minute changes to the State Budget before it ultimately was approved by a 50-48 vote. I then drove home feeling not only tired, but extremely frustrated with fifty of my colleagues who believe the best way to balance a budget during a recession is by raising taxes on their hard-working constituents, making it more expensive for outdoor enthusiasts to purchase licenses they need to enjoy sports such as hunting, making it tougher to open and operate a business in our state, rolling out a bigger welcome mat for illegal aliens, easing up on monitoring violent child sex predators, and increasing overall state spending by 6.3%. It does not make any sense.
The remainder of my colleagues and I fought hard against nearly every outrageous provision included in the budget by speaking out against them and introducing 130 amendments to eliminate them from the budget. Among the amendments introduced, I co-sponsored one with Representative Scott Suder and Representative Don Pridemore that would have removed the provision granting driving cards to illegal aliens. I strongly believe this is a policy issue that does not belong in the state budget, and it will only encourage more illegal immigration into Wisconsin while threatening the safety of our citizens. I spoke out against this provision on the floor shortly after midnight, remembering two residents of the 66th Assembly District who were killed by illegal aliens behind the wheel. At one point during the debate, Representative Scott Newcomer read the definition of “illegal” from a dictionary; yet, in the end our efforts were not enough to prevent fifty of our colleagues from defying our laws and encouraging more illegal behavior in our state.
From the Assembly, the budget made its way over to the Senate and passed with a vote of 17-16 on Wednesday night. Because the Senate version of the budget differs from what the Assembly passed, the document will now be subjected to negotiations in a conference committee. Comprised of members in leadership positions from both houses, the committee will work out a final compromise on the budget before delivering it to Governor Doyle for his approval. I am pleased to report that the Senate version does not include the provisions to give illegal aliens driving cards and in-state tuition, but that doesn’t mean the conference committee won’t consider re-inserting these items back into the budget.
At a time when Wisconsin families are scaling back on spending and tightening their household budgets, the Legislature approved a partisan plan that spends $3.8 billion more than during the previous fiscal cycle. In order to fund this excessive spending, higher taxes will be imposed on our already struggling residents and businesses will be left with fewer opportunities to create more jobs. Like the families we represent, my colleagues and I should have approved a budget that better prioritizes government spending during a recession and places the hardworking taxpayers ahead of special interests. Unfortunately, the budget we passed does not achieve this.
Budget Survey Results
A few weeks ago, I sent out a “special edition” of Capitol Insight that included a link to a budget survey I encouraged you to participate in. To those who took the time to answer the questions, thank you. Your responses provided some of my colleagues and me with the valuable data we needed to draft the amendments we introduced in an effort to remove the “pork” from the state budget. The results of the survey for the 66th Assembly District include:
Raise Taxes
Support: 12.2%
Oppose: 86%
Cut Government Spending
Support: 94.5%
Oppose: 5.6%
Increase Borrowing
Support: 15%
Oppose: 80.5%
Increase Taxes
Support: 4%
Oppose: 95%
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