The state Assembly chamber was packed with legislators, Wisconsin Supreme Court justices, aides and media when Gov. Jim Doyle took to the podium to give his 2003-'05 budget proposal Tuesday. Doyle warned the crowd at the outset that they were embarking on a difficult journey with this new budget, one that would be demanding and painful.
Doyle himself refused a pay raise and cut back his office's spending by 19 percent. The hardest blows of the budget come to the 2,900 state jobs that will be cut and the $250 million reduction in UW System funding.
Doyle promised to balance the budget without increasing income, sales and corporate taxes, cutting funding to education, health care, local services like police and fire departments, farmers and the environment.
While the budget reduces funding to the UW System by $250 million, Doyle said he proposes to increase student financial aid for low- and middle-income families by 56 percent over the biennium. Kirk Brown, Doyle's policy director, said this would be the largest financial aid increase in Wisconsin history.
Doyle also said he proposes to prohibit the UW System Board of Regents from increasing tuition by more than $350 per student per semester for in-state students at the Madison and Milwaukee campuses. For all other UW campuses the cap would be set at $250. If the regents went to the top of the cap and decided to increase tuition by $350, the in-state tuition would increase from $2,211.50 per semester to about $2,561.50, an increase of about 15.8 percent.
\For a working family, $250 or $350 is a lot of money. But we still have the second-lowest tuition of any Big Ten schools. And the only state behind us--Iowa--has already announced tuition increases of 19 percent,"" Doyle said.
Under Doyle's proposed plan, Madison will cut 200, mostly middle-management, positions in the Department of Corrections. Newly planned correction facilities will not open and 3,000 inmates will continue to be housed out of state.
Doyle, a former attorney general, said he proposes to reduce prison costs by expanding investment that gives kids alternatives to crime and other non-incarceration initiatives such as boot camps and modifications to the Challenge Incarceration Program to allow more non-violent offenders to earn their release from prison.
""As a district attorney and attorney general, I've devoted my career to protecting public safety. No matter how deep the budget crises may be, we're going to keep our communities safe,"" Doyle said.
Doyle also proposed in his budget to decrease the blood alcohol concentration definition of drunk driving from 0.1 percent to 0.08 percent to finally bring it in line with 12-year-old federal requirements and avoid the loss of millions of dollars in federal aid.
""That's a budget-breaker,"" state Sen. Ted Kanavas, R-Brookfield, told WisPolitics.com.
Doyle also said his budget proposal allocates $244 million to bring the work on the reconstruction of the Marquette Interchange in Milwaukee.
""The cost is high, but we can't plug a two-year budget hole by sacrificing the safety and quality of a road people will drive for decades to come,"" Doyle said.
Doyle said he also proposes to increase vehicle registration and titling fees by $10 each to ensure the continued funding of high-priority state and local road projects.
A critical element of Doyle's proposed budget is to increase fees paid to Wisconsin by American Indian tribes under the gaming compacts. Brown said they are currently negotiating with the tribes, but Doyle is confident their renegotiations will result in a minimum of $237 million.
Many Republicans were critical that Doyle's budget cuts too deep and relies too heavily on expected money from the federal government.
""Frankly, I do not believe that citizens have the will to stomach or accept these deep cuts. Therefore, we need to listen carefully with our hearts to find the right solutions that are good and fair to all,"" said state Sen. Robert Jauch D-Poplar.
