Yep.
Just because LFB didn’t “find” new money for the legislature to play with does not mean that Wisconsin is in a poor fiscal situation. According to the estimates, Wisconsin tax collections will be near $31 billion for the 2015-17 biennium, which is about $2.5 billion more than was estimated for the 2013-15 budget. That is an increase of more than eight percent over the previous budget – which, as we said, cut taxes.
“Wisconsinites are better off today because of the prudent financial decisions we made last budget,” Sen. Alberta Darling said on Wednesday. “We’ve already returned over $2 billion to the hardworking taxpayers of our state.”
So, what is the real problem Wisconsin is facing? It’s spending.
Two words: Medical Assistance
A significant amount of revenue is diverted from other programs/agencies each budget cycle to pay for the significant increases in medical assistance.
Until this problem is addressed, our state is going to have a very hard time delivering tax cuts or more funding for education without significant changes in either tax structure or revenue sources
I realize there are federal “matching” provisions involved, but I get really frustrated seeing funds diverted from tax cuts, infrastructure, and K-12 education for something that while it might have a “moral purpose” really has a poor ROI…
I really hope our state moves in the direction of making medical assistance, food share, housing assistance, etc… temporary help as opposed to the “lifestyle” that it has become in many cases
If $31 billion estimated is $2.5 billion more than the 2013-2015 estimate, that would mean the 2013-2015 estimate was $28.5 billion. I get that.
But what was the actual revenue taken in for the 2013-2015 period or since we’ve got a few more weeks until the end of the FY in June, what are the actual numbers plus projections tracking at for 2013-2015 period?
I’d think the GOP could do a chart showing year by year the total taxes collected since 2009 through 2015 and then asterisk each year with how much additional taxes would have been collected without Walker tax cuts in those years.
We need that to rebut this nonsense that the State economy and budget are falling apart every time the LFB releases a report.