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Doyle orders more cuts to budget, vetoes delay in school aid

Associated Press  —  5/16/2008 4:35 pm

State agencies will have to cut deeper, but schools will get state aid on time, and money to make driver's licenses more secure will remain in the budget after vetoes Gov. Jim Doyle issued Friday.

The weak economy has blown a $527 million hole in the state's current two-year spending plan. The state can't collect enough in sales, income and other taxes to cover its bills.

The Legislature passed a bill this past week to make up the shortfall with cuts and accounting moves, but the plan needed Doyle's approval to go into effect. That opened the door for the governor to rewrite sections with his partial veto power.

Under his vetoes, state agencies will have to cut $270 million from their budgets rather than the $69 million the Legislature required.

A big chunk of those cuts will come from dollars earmarked for roads. The Legislature's bill to fix the budget laid out $2.9 billion for highway construction and repairs, but Doyle bumped that back to about $2.8 billion.

The governor said other state agencies will have to limit spending increases and rein in new programs over the next fiscal year, but didn't elaborate.

"We cannot address the ... gap with just $69 million in reductions," the governor said.

Doyle also vetoed lawmakers' plan to delay $125 million in school aid payments, saying the state can't push its bills into the future and must maintain its commitment to education.

Doyle restored most of the money collected to implement the federal Real ID law, which is designed to create more secure identification cards in all 50 states.

Lawmakers grabbed all $22 million the state had set aside for the program to help balance the budget, but Doyle scaled it back to $2 million. The money should be used for what it was meant for, Doyle said.

Doyle also:

* Ordered state budget officials to try to refinance the state's tobacco bonds for $150 million, rather than $209 million. That would shorten the life of the bonds and reduce interest, Doyle budget director David Schmiedicke said.

* Wiped out property tax exemptions for religious and charitable organizations that the Legislature had tucked into the bill. The exemptions addressed policy that Doyle said should go through the legislative process.

* Increased money left in the state's general fund to $100 million, up from $25 million left under the Legislature's plan.

The vetoes were Doyle's first since state voters adopted a constitutional amendment in April limiting his partial veto powers.

Wisconsin governors had been allowed to form new sentences by crossing out words and digits and jamming the remaining letters and numbers together. The amendment keeps them from crossing out words and numbers from two or more sentences to form a new sentence.

But they can still create new words within a sentence by deleting letters and numbers.

Doyle did this with his latest vetoes. In one instance he combined "2007-09" and "$69,000,000" to create the order to cut $270 million in state spending.

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, called Doyle's vetoes creative. He said he was disappointed to see a reduction in highway spending but doubted his chamber would try to override any vetoes that reduced state spending.

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, issued a statement saying he was unhappy Doyle took out the property tax exemptions for benevolent organizations and made highway cuts.

Despite all the maneuvering, the state still faces long-term financial trouble with an expected $1.7 billion shortfall by July 1, 2011. Doyle will have to address that problem in the next full budget he submits in February.

"If things worsen, we'll have to look at everything again," Schmiedicke said.

Associated Press  —  5/16/2008 4:35 pm