Pages

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

One Wisconsin Now Claims Walker Will Fix Doyle's Problems

Governor Doyle and the legislature quite literally got their hands caught in the cookie jar when the state Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the transfer of money from the medical malpractice fund.

In response, One Wisconsin Now issued a press release attacking Scott Walker. I'd dismiss it as all boilerplate, but it included this howler:
[Walker would] Shift tax revenue from new car sales into the transportation fund — two-year budget cost: $1 billion.
Of course, the transportation fund is the other fund that Doyle likes to raid in order to mask continued irresponsible budgeting.

In fact, the Wisconsin State Journal article OWN cites as a source for this claim starts off with this (emphasis added):

State officials in March closed a major section of Highway 45 after discovering "dangerous deterioration" on a bridge that carries traffic through the Zoo Interchange, the state's busiest. It was the latest example of a growing problem across the state: Wisconsin's transportation system is aging.

Meanwhile, its funding system is routinely raided to pay for other programs...
and later:
Meanwhile, Wisconsin has in the past eight years raided its transportation fund for $1.3 billion to pay for other state programs. It has borrowed $1 billion to offset the loss, leaving a $300 million shortfall.
So Walker is going to put back $1billion of the $1.3 billion that Doyle transferred out of the fund. No doubt Wisconsin drivers will appreciate that in the long run.

3 comments:

capper said...

How can Walker make that claim, since he has spent the last eight years raiding the capital funds to fill the holes in his budgets.

Milwaukee County's debt service as doubled since Walker took over, and the capital funds, which is derived from the half cent sales tax, has shrunk from over $20 million dollars to under half a million. The bulk of the money is used to pay down the debt service.

I have heard county officials say that they are concerned that there might not even be enough money from the sales tax to cover the 2011 debt service, and that the county, for the first time in history, will have to use tax levy to pay it off.

To add to the fun, the last two years that Walker's raided the capital funds, it has been done in violation of the county ordinances.

Jeremy R. Shown said...

Capper-

Walker didn't make that claim, I did.

I can't speak to any of your other points. I just wanted to point out how silly it was that OWN's release criticizes Walker for trying to repair a fund that Doyle raided, without any hint of how we got to this point in the first place. Namely, through Doyle's budgeting schemes.

Unknown said...

It's not repairing a fund. It's permanently shifting money from GPR.

And in one of Walker's rare consistencies, he still won't say how he will pay for it, just like the other $2 billion for his ridiculous tax cut for the top one percent, reopening the Las Vegas corporate loophole, the capital gains nonsense and his ridiculous retirement income plan.

Walker is a hypocritical joke. From the 84% hike in state spending he supported to the 35% proposed at the county level.

It's the same GOP failed talking points, delivered with with in a Wisconsin accent and cracking voice.