Wisconsin’s projected state budget surplus is now forecast to reach $7.1 billion by July, up more than half a billion dollars from the previous estimate just two months ago.
Tag: Legislative Fiscal Bureau
Posted inFact briefs
Have tax cuts saved Wisconsin taxpayers nearly $22 billion over the last 12 years?
Yes. Tax policy changes adopted since January 2011 in Wisconsin have cumulatively saved state taxpayers approximately $21.9 billion in the 12-year period between 2011-12 and 2022-23, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
Posted inMoney & Politics Column, Scott Walker's Wisconsin
Scott Walker budget bill is rife with non-fiscal policy items
Some of Walker’s proposals appear to be policy changes with little or no fiscal impact. Wisconsin governors and lawmakers from both parties have often injected these into the budget. Walker, as a candidate for governor in 2010, made an unequivocal pledge to “strip policy and pork projects from the state budget.” By his first budget, this promise was labeled “broken.”
Posted inEconomy, Government, Health & Welfare
Walker now backs funding for disabled workers
Gov. Scott Walker has announced plans to change course and seek full federal funding of a program that helps people with disabilities find jobs. Advocates at Disability Rights Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Rehabilitation Council credit a report by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism for new legislation aiming to fully fund the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, an arm of the state Department of Workforce Development.
Posted inEducation, Government
School districts paying $25 million for controversial Common Core standards
Wisconsin’s new Common Core standards for math and English cost the state very little to implement because individual districts are footing the bill, which likely will come to about $25 million.
Posted inEconomy, Government, Health & Welfare
State passes up federal disabilities aid for jobless, despite backlogs
Thousands of people with disabilities must wait for months to access state employment services, although the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation has not requested the full amount of federal funds available to it for the past three years, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism has found.
Posted inEconomy, Government, Health & Welfare
Wait list long, caseloads high
Thousands of people with disabilities must wait for months to access state employment services, although the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation has not requested the full amount of federal funds available to it for the past three years, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism has found.
Posted inMoney & Politics Column
Non-fiscal budget items draw flak
It’s hard to deny that Walker is doing pretty much exactly what he promised to stop. But that doesn’t mean the pork projects and policy items included in his budget are bad ideas.