Budget crunch:
Producing responses that are bi-partisan, thoughtful

		Eye on the  Capitol  John Huebscher

It is often said that challenges provide opportunities. Based on recent events, it appears that Wisconsin's budget shortfall is producing the most serious debate over the scope and function of state government in the last 30 years.

It appears as well that the debate will not divide neatly along partisan lines.

For some in both parties, the task of filling the budget hole must be done via cuts in government spending and services. Raising taxes is not an option. The leaders of the Legislature's Republican majority and Democratic Governor-elect Doyle are proponents of this view.

But other bi-partisan coalitions are counseling that the deficit is too large and Wisconsin's commitment too great for spending cuts alone to provide the answer. These bi-partisan groups are offering ideas that deserve serious consideration in 2003.

Cutting budget, increasing revenue

One group consists of former legislators from both major parties and cabinet officials from the administrations of former Governors Warren Knowles, Martin Schreiber, Tony Earl, and Tommy Thompson. It includes two former secretaries of revenue and three former members of the Joint Committee on Finance.

This group has concluded that the solution to our budget problems must include a combination of budget cuts and increased revenue. They further "bite the bullet" and propose specifics in both areas.

Their plan calls for a modest reduction in the state's commitment to fund two-thirds of all local school costs, dropping the state's share from 66.67 percent to 63 percent. They also propose a $50 million reduction in shared revenues to local governments, an annual reduction of $25 million in the budget of the UW-System, and similar reductions in medial assistance and corrections.

On the taxation side, they propose a modest reduction in Wisconsin's income tax, but offset this by increasing the sales tax from five percent to six percent and extending the tax to a number of services such as those provided by attorneys, accountants, advertisers, architects, and engineers, to name a few.

Their plan also calls for an increase in the gasoline tax to be earmarked, not for the highway fund, but for general government expenses.

Another bi-partisan approach

Most recently, two legislators, Republican Michael Lehman of Hartford and Democrat Wayne Wood of Janesville, have offered a bi-partisan approach of their own.

The two have suggested a reform of the system by which Wisconsin finances elementary and secondary schools, one that will remove most school costs from the property tax. The revenue to fund the school costs will come instead from the sales tax, which in their plan increases from five percent to seven percent.

Representatives Lehman and Wood both have strong credentials as fiscal conservatives, so it is significant that they too agree that budget cuts alone will not solve the state's fiscal ailment and that additional revenues, as well as creative thinking about relationships between state and local government, must be part of the solution.

Creative compromise

It is doubtful that any of these bi-partisan approaches will be enacted without being amended and refined. But even at this early stage of the budget 2003 discussions, it seems clear that the harsh partisanship that produced our current budget mess is giving way to bi-partisan thinking and cooperation.

Such creative compromise, whatever its final form, better reflects Wisconsin's progressive heritage and will better serve Wisconsin's future.

John Huebscher is executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference.