Members of the Joint Finance Committee have their work cut out for them as they spend the coming weeks fine-tuning the 2009-'11 executive budget, which now must deal with a deficit likely more than $6 billion.
Although earlier estimates of the budget deficit were around $5.9 billion, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau announced Tuesday that the number may be much higher. LFB Director Bob Lang said the deficit will be close to $1 billion more after April tax revenue numbers are reviewed. The bureau is expected to release specific numbers next week.
Lang said the increased figure will probably not slow down the budget committee's deliberations.
""I think they just want to keep plowing ahead,"" Lang said.
The JFC, which has been holding executive sessions over the past few weeks, has already made a few adjustments to the budget, including restoring the film tax incentives Gov. Jim Doyle's budget had eliminated. The JFC also reduced the amount of financial aid funding going to the UW System in order to spend more on the state's technical schools.
However, the higher deficit has put the budget in an uncertain position.
Josh Freker, spokesperson for JFC co-chair Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, said in an e-mail that regardless of the increased deficit, the budget committee plans to have the budget ready to be voted on in the state Legislature and signed by Doyle by the end of June.
""Right now everyone is waiting for the Legislative Fiscal Bureau to release more precise figures so we know exactly what we're facing,"" Freker said. ""We will still work to pass the budget as expeditiously as possible.""
Andrew Reschovsky, UW-Madison professor of public affairs and applied economics, said he believes the new deficit numbers will increase the time it takes to pass the budget.
""Suddenly if you have to fill a bigger gap, there will have to be a new set of decisions made collectively by the governor and the Legislature,"" he said.
Although he is not worried about the budget getting done on time, JFC member Rep. Robin Vos, R-Racine, said he is concerned about Democrats offering tax increases as answers to the budget problem.
