The state conference committee stalled progress on the budget reform bill Tuesday, finishing its fourth straight day of debate in a deadlock.
Although both Democrats and Republicans put proposals on the table, neither side would accept the other's provisions.
\Argued. That's pretty much all that was accomplished today,"" said Steve Baas, press secretary to Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha.
Baas said Senate Democrats rejected an Assembly Republican offer that aimed to tighten the spending cap on state agencies and limit the number of employees the state government could hire.
""It would have saved nearly $60 million in the short term, and made fundamental reforms in the budget for the long run,"" he said.
Senate Democrats countered the Republican proposal with a plan for a combination of cuts to over 20 agencies, including the Department of Corrections, according to Mike Browne, representative of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala, D-Madison. Browne said the proposal would have saved $65 million.
""The Department of Corrections budget has just exploded in the last 10 years,"" Browne said. ""The Democrats have said that one of the areas we should look to cut is Corrections, so that we can preserve other areas, like the UW.""
However, Baas said Republicans could not take the Democratic proposal seriously.
""Their proposal was, accept our position 100 percent, take it or leave it. That's not a negotiation proposal'that's posturing,"" he said.
Both sides blamed the opposite party for holding up the reform process.
""It's frustrating that the Republicans haven't shown any real movement,"" Black said, while Baas specifically blamed Chvala for the hold-up.
""This is pretty typical for a Democratic conference committee under Sen. Chvala. He likes to spend considerable time at the front of the process staking out his positions and playing to the cameras a little bit,"" he said.
The bi-partisan arguing and drawn out reform process are not unusual, according to UW-Madison political science Professor Donald Kettl, but he added that business as usual does not make reform any less urgent.
""This is an almost desperate situation,"" he said. ""There are payments the state has to make to local governments and local schools, some in May, some in June. It's critical that these agreements be wrapped up as soon as possible.""
The committee will reconvene tomorrow to continue chipping away at reform. Browne said the Democrats will still focus on shared revenue, UW-Madison and the Department of Corrections.
""These are the major areas of the budget where most of the money goes,"" he said. ""If you're not dealing with those issues, you're dancing around the edges of the budget. At some point, we're going to have to get serious about those issues.\
