Wisconsin Governor Doyle and the legislature were preparing to pass Doyle’s first biennial budget, George Mason University Professor of Government and Politics in the Department of Public and International Affairs Dr. James K. Conant penned an article in the June 2003 edition of Public Budgeting & Finance. Here’s what it said:
“Wisconsin’s lawmakers increased spending and cut taxes during the 1990s. Then, in January of 2001, they faced an estimated $2.4 billion budget gap or deficit for the FY 2001–2003 biennium. They cut spending and generated additional revenue by borrowing against future tobacco settlement income. Still, by January of 2002, the estimated deficit had grown by an additional $1.3 billion, and more cutting and borrowing took place. Despite these actions, a $3.5 billion deficit was projected for FY 2003–2005.”
The truth is that the structural deficit was almost the same when Doyle began his first term as it is today. It was inherited from Republican governors Tommy Thompson and his short-term successor, Scott McCallum. It’s also worth noting that as the 2003 session of the Wisconsin legislature opened, the GOP held the majority in the Assembly 58-41 and in the Senate 18-15.
While that structural deficit persists today, a lot has happened since 2003. One trifling matter, for example, was the Great Recession under Republican President George W. Bush. Those Bush tax cuts didn’t do much for employment or prosperity for anyone except the very wealthy:
http://jimrosenberg.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/standing-with-walker-a-lot-more-like-lying/
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
