Doyle to call for budget session
10:32 PM 1/23/03
Phil Brinkman State government reporter

Gov. Jim Doyle said Thursday he would call a special session of the Legislature next week to address a gaping hole in the current state budget, the second time in a year lawmakers have been called back to fix the same spending plan.

The move was prompted by figures released Thursday showing the state would close the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, with a deficit of $452 million unless cuts are made. The state constitution requires budgets be balanced.

The Democratic governor, who took office less than three weeks ago, said he would introduce an emergency budget bill cutting $161.5 million, what he called "a down payment on the deficit."

"The remaining deficit from this fiscal year will have to be rolled into next year's budget because unfortunately there is only so much we can cut in the final five months of a fiscal year when the vast majority of the money has already been spent," Doyle said.

In fact, the current problem will look like peanuts compared to the deficit in the next two-year budget, re-estimated Thursday at $3.2 billion. Doyle plans to introduce that budget bill Feb. 18.

Most of the savings in the emergency bill would come from 5 percent cuts to state agencies and raiding unspent state grant programs and other funds. With less than half of the year to absorb the reductions, the cuts to many agencies will amount to 10 percent or more of their remaining budgets.

"It's possible layoffs could result from these cuts," Doyle spokesman Thad Nation said.

Doyle's plan would cover $64 million in cost overruns in Medical Assistance and BadgerCare, the state health insurance plan for the working poor, by borrowing from the trust fund that pays for the programs. The money would have to be made up with cuts elsewhere in the next budget.

The governor's bill also exempts from the 5 percent cuts state prisons and care facilities, instructional and research programs in the University of Wisconsin System, the circuit courts, district attorneys and the state public defender.

Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, said Doyle was not showing leadership by offering a plan well short of resolving the deficit.

"It really disappoints me as a legislative leader being asked to come into special session and talk about laying off state workers and solving less than half the problem," Gard said.

Gard said he will ask Doyle for a proposal to solve the rest of the deficit before the Legislature meets.

Anti-smoking advocates were stunned by Doyle's plan to cut $2 million in grants from a state smoking cessation program.

"We're a little confused. We've got a governor who's been a champion at fighting the tobacco industry," said Maureen Busalacchi, deputy director of Smoke Free Wisconsin. "It really doesn't make sense to cut that money right out of the box."

The deficit for the current budget is more than twice what had been predicted just two months ago by Doyle's predecessor, former GOP Gov. Scott McCallum.

Doyle blamed the increase on a larger-than-expected drop in revenue and "bad decisions that were made in the past," a reference to the last budget repair bill submitted by McCallum.

That plan relied on selling off a portion of the annual proceeds under the state's tobacco lawsuit settlement for a one-time infusion of cash.

State Journal reporter Tom Sheehan contributed to this report.