Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

[timmgirvan]

Originally Posted by Riot

Well, no. I don't.

Maybe you shouldn't make so many assumptions about other people?



Um, no. I post articles, polls, etc - and that forms my opinion. I don't start with an opinion, first.



Ah. I see. Everything I think or post is "incorrect". THAT's what it is you think is "unreasonable" <vbg>

And you're actually making snarky comments about me because you think I have more free time than you to pay attention to politics (that's not allowed?), or that I love talking about politics? (not allowed either in your world?) Not very tolerant of other people being different than you, are you? And I'm the one being "unreasonable"? LOL

nice moonwalk

[Riot]

Originally Posted by timmgirvan

nice moonwalk

No. It was not.

[timmgirvan]

Originally Posted by Riot

No. It was not.

yeah...it was. You didnt answer a lick of his question, or give a solution. You appear to have most of the floor...so quit dancing and put forth a small solution.

[dellinger63]

A budget prototype:


TAXES
— Does not include any state sales or income tax increases and would limit schools and local governments on how much they could raise property taxes. Walker also said he wouldn’t increase any fees.
— Creates a 100 percent exclusion from capital gains taxes for those who invest in Wisconsin-based businesses and hold those investments for at least five years.


MEDICAID
— Cuts $500 million from Medicaid through a variety of reforms including increasing co-pays and deductibles, but not by reducing benefits across the board or cutting provider reimbursement rates.

K-12 SCHOOLS
— Cuts aid to schools by about $900 million and also reduces how much schools can collect from property taxes per student.
— Eliminates the requirement that schools be open 180 days a year, but retains the classroom hours mandate. The change would allow schools that want to meet for fewer, longer days to do so.
— Repeals the enrollment limit for the virtual charter school program and the Milwaukee school choice program.


HIGHER EDUCATION
— Allows the University of Wisconsin-Madison to split from the UW System and operate independently. The system would have to launch a study into allowing UW-Milwaukee to break off as well.
— Cuts aid to UW-Madison by $125 million and to the other 25 campuses in the system by $125 million.
— Ends the Wisconsin Covenant program, one of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s signature programs, on Sept. 30. The program promises financial aid for college to middle school students who promise to stay out of trouble and earn decent grades. Students who sign up for the program before Sept. 30 could still participate. Walker argues this change would protect other forms of financial aid from cuts.
— Children of illegal immigrants who attend state universities and colleges could no longer pay in-state tuition, a benefit granted in the 2009 budget by Democrats then in control of the Legislature and the governor’s office.
— Cuts aid to technical colleges by 30 percent, or $72 million.
— Authorizes all four-year UW campuses to sponsor independent charter schools and allow charter schools to be created anywhere in the state.


TRANSPORTATION
— Provides $225 million to rebuilding the Zoo Interchange in Milwaukee.
— Provides $195 million to continue reconstruction of Interstate 94 between Milwaukee and Kenosha.


LAW AND ORDER
— Ends the ability of prison offenders to earn time off their sentences for good behavior, a change approved by Democrats.
— Ends the state Department of Corrections’ ability to discharge an offender from parole after two years and from probation after serving half the sentence.
— Closes the Ethan Allen School, a detention facility for boys, and move inmates to Lincoln Hills School in Lincoln County.
— Closes the Southern Oaks Girls School, a detention facility for girls, and move the inmates to Copper Lake School at Lincoln Hills.
— Provides six new full-time DNA analysts at the state crime labs to prevent case backlogs.
— Adds 19 more staff members at the state Department of Justice to track down cyber predators.


THE GREAT OUTDOORS
— Keeps hunting and fishing license fees unchanged.
— Scales back regulations to control phosphorus pollution to bring them in line with neighboring state’s rules. BTW the Lake I live near has been controlling phosphorus pollution by educating and having residents follow through by simply buying bio friendly laundry detergent and refraining from washing clothes on weekends during the summer. And yes it's prestine despite being the most recreationally used lake in WI. It's one of those ask not what your government can do for you feelings everytime your on or in the Lake

— Eliminates payments to local governments that lose property tax revenue following state Department of Natural Resources land stewardship purchases. Governments would be allowed to pass resolutions supporting or opposing purchases as a signal to the DNR, but the resolutions would not be binding. The Legislature’s budget committee would have to approve stewardship purchases of more than $250,000.
— Ends requirements that a municipality or county run solid waste recycling programs and diverts state aid for such programs to other economic development efforts.


GOVERNMENT
— State spending under the $28.7 billion plan would decrease 1.3 percent the first year then go up 5.3 percent in the second. Over the entire two-year budget spending would go up a paltry 1.3 percent.
— Cuts most state agency budgets, except for salary and benefits, by 10 percent.
— Eliminate 735 state positions that have been vacant for more than a year.
— Downsizes the state treasurer and secretary of state’s offices, moving many of their existing duties elsewhere. The EdVest college savings program would be removed from the treasurer’s office while the secretary of state office would lose its responsibility to handle trademark and trade name registrations and notary public commissions.
— Cuts aid to cities by $60 million, an 8.8 percent reduction, while counties would lose over $36 million, a 24 percent cut.
— Drops the state’s ongoing budget shortfall from $2.5 billion to $250 million in four years, the smallest so-called “structural deficit” on record.

http://www.gazettextra.com/weblogs/l...rief-overview/

[geeker2]

hold on a second while I check huffington to see if there is a response

[Riot]

TAXES
— Does not include any state sales or income tax increases and would limit schools and local governments on how much they could raise property taxes.

Which is big state government takeover dictating how individual towns with home rule can run their own towns. That means that even if every citizen in a town votes to want to raise taxes to increase the quality of schooling, or fund a fire station, or buy a snowplow, Walker has prevented them from doing it. Probably not legal, and towns are already talking about suing the state.

— [b]Creates a 100 percent exclusion from capital gains taxes for those who invest in Wisconsin-based businesses and hold those investments for at least five years.

2/3 of Wisconsin corporations already pay zero in taxes. Nice to see Walker is giving away more state income in the face of a deficit. Not smart.

MEDICAID
— Cuts $500 million from Medicaid through a variety of reforms including increasing co-pays and deductibles, but not by reducing benefits across the board or cutting provider reimbursement rates.

Making poor people who cannot afford it pay more for health care. Brilliant! Google: "Arizona death panel transplants"

Takes away current legislative branch control over medicaid, and puts it in the sole care and control of the Governor's office: Walker is solely responsible for who qualifies and what their benefits will be.

— Cuts aid to schools by about $900 million and also reduces how much schools can collect from property taxes per student.

Who in their right mind can think that an 8% decrease in school funding is good? Eliminate all the extra classes, advanced classes, etc. And that towns that do NOT want to decrease the number of teachers, or lose programs, or lose school funding, are not allowed by the governor to do that, in their own towns! This is simply beyond crazy.

Well, no - it's a deliberate effort to put the schools into such a disastrous mess, that Walker can push for privatization.

[Riot]

Originally Posted by timmgirvan

yeah...it was. You didnt answer a lick of his question, or give a solution..

This thread wasn't about solutions to the Wisconsin budget. It was - and still is - about Walkers union busting.

You want to change the subject to the Wisconsin budget? Okay, where's yours? Post your Wisconsin budget solutions right here, Timmi