WI new budget : -834M$ schools, -60M$ cities, -36M$ counties, +1.2B$ Medicaid, +82M$ tax cuts

Well this won't help much...but the state has a 3.6 billion $ deficit.. and unlike the federal government, can't print at will.

Wis. Schools face deep cuts under gov.'s budget

With Senate Democrats still missing, Walker presented the second part of his two-year spending plan to the Legislature on Tuesday. It relies on getting concessions from government employees to help pay for about $1 billion cuts in aid to schools, counties and cities while avoiding any tax or fee increases, furloughs or widespread layoffs as lawmakers grapple with a projected $3.6 billion shortfall.

Jamie Domini, a project coordinator at Badger Rock Middle School in Madison, said Walker's proposal — which includes an 8 percent cut in aid to schools amounting to about $834 million — would "completely gut the public education system in Wisconsin."

Local leaders also expressed concerns about how they would deal with cuts. Cities would get nearly $60 million less in aid, an 8.8 percent cut, under Walker's plan, while counties would lose more than $36 million, a 24 percent reduction. They would not be allowed to increase property taxes except to account for new construction.

Walker also proposed a $500 million cut in Medicaid spending, which would be achieved through a number of changes that include increasing co-pays and deductibles and requiring participants in SeniorCare to be also be enrolled in Medicare Part D. Overall state spending on the program would increase by $1.2 billion, largely to replace reduced federal money.

Walker asked for $82 million in tax cuts, including an expanded exclusion for capital gains realized on investments made in Wisconsin-based businesses.

This seems bad... but guess what, most states are gonna be forced to do something like this real soon.

reply to post by Vitchilo


Seems incredibly stupid to cut spending so drastically.... then cut taxes.
Morons.

So he wants to cut funding for schools, cities and counties.

But he is expanding the capital gains tax....yeah...he is really working for the "people" there


How can people not see he is screwing the working class and giving more money to the rich???

We should completely cut all funding to our military, and spend those billions of dollars on giving the homeless jobs, homes, and food. We should quit funding the un-winnable War on Drugs and spend that money on fixing up all of the run-down neighborhoods. Build schools for cities that need it instead of wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on new secret military technology that the people who are funding it don't even know about, build rec-centers instead of prisons, etc. But of course my fairy tale country will never be attained, because presidents obviously are more interested in flexing our military's muscles and funding random things instead of things that can actually help lots of people out and do some good for this country. Not that this article is about the president, but if he stepped in and did something about poor communities we wouldn't have terrible ideas like this Wisconsin clowns'.

reply to post by Vitchilo


so, how does

-834M$ schools, -60M$ cities, -36M$ counties, +1.2B$ Medicaid, +82M$ tax cuts,

so how does that translate into a $500 million cut in medicaid?????
they are increasing it 1.2 billion, but then they are cutting 500 million???
basically it's give to the poor, give to the rich....screw everyone else till they are either rich enough to enjoy the tax breaks, or poor enough to enjoy the handouts!!!

Firstly the Tax Cuts ????? that's just plain stupid......!!

BUT

When will we all realise that currently we are 'spendijng' more than we earn on everything !!!!

Bottom line.... money out does not equal money in !!

Unfortunately Cuts and savings have to be made BUT NOT TAX cuts .. that's stupid !!

PDUK

Tough choices for Wisconsin to make, but I salute Walker's effort. An 8.8% cut to education is hardly a "gutting" however. State budgets are deceptive in many ways. For instance, health care benefits for teachers aren't classified in the state budget as "health care costs" but, rather, they are covered under the education funding tab. The quality of education can stay the same with an 8+% cut... if the cut is distributed correctly. This is one of the reasons Walker has fought the unions. The unions would have people believe that is a direct 8.8% cut aimed straight at each student when, in reality, there is absolutely no reason for any student to see the impact of the cut outside of possibly having to use the same text books as the previous year's class did (something most of us growing up in the 80s handled just fine, thank you very much) and maybe having to sell a few more boxes of cookies or fruit to cover the additional cost of vocational type school clubs and organizations.

The tax breaks are absolutely what the federal government needs to do as well. Give businesses a break, but do so with qualifications based on them actually demonstrating that the money saved stayed in OUR system. (This is why Reaganomics & Trickle Down and why the removal of these protectionist policies make today's system nowhere near Trickle Down, regardless of how often the media tries to call it such.)

Originally posted by dawnstar
reply to post by Vitchilo

 

so, how does

-834M$ schools, -60M$ cities, -36M$ counties, +1.2B$ Medicaid, +82M$ tax cuts,

so how does that translate into a $500 million cut in medicaid?????
they are increasing it 1.2 billion, but then they are cutting 500 million???

MedicAID vs MedicARE
The Feds allow more state control over Medicaid spending. Medicare, however, is fully controled by the feds. It's a ridiculous horse's ass of a program because the federal government has and does lock each state into having to carry the lion's share of the funding and gives them no abillity to do anything but increase benefits & spending. It's kinda like a federal taxation on each state in some ways. Medicaid is more or less qualified by each individual state as to who gets what and who doesn't. Pretty ridiculous example of being forced to rob Peter so Paul gets his piece of the pie.

reply to post by burdman30ott6

I know the difference between medicare, medicaid...and they raised mediCAID by 1.2 billion, before they cut it by 500 million, unless the op has made a mistake...
and I disagree over which one is the most useless or less deserving...
medicare goes to the elderly, and the handicapped (although there are plenty of people running around that seem to be perfectly capable of working, but are considered handicapped. but, medicaid's intention is to help those who are too old, or too sick to fend for themselves.....they have a reason for not working...many of it's recipients have worked most of their adult lives, they paid taxes, in particular, the social security tax.
the medicaid, well, far too often it goes to people who could work, and their kids.

ya know, there is more money given back in tax breaks on the federal level than revenue that is taken in from those taxes??? we have a set if laws that dictate just how much we should pay, according to income level, but then they think of a billion and one reasons why this person, or that person, and let's not forget these businesses over there....should be exceptions to the rules.... as far as I am concerned, we should scrap the whole tax system and find one that everyone can live with and thrive without any exceptions....

reply to post by dawnstar


It is possible I misunderstood the OP. I took the $1.2 B increase to be related to the Medicare Plan D program, not the Medicaid Program.

Ah, here's the difference!
www.jsonline.com...

Overall, the efforts would mean $500 million in less spending on Medicaid over the next biennium, compared to the current growth trend, Walker's budget says. The program now costs about $1.1 billion a year. Walker's budget calls his plans "common sense, focused changes (that) will allow the state to bend the cost curve" on Medicaid.

Despite trims in eligibility and other rules governing the state's Medicaid programs for low-income residents, state spending nevertheless would rise by $1.2 billion, largely to make up for reduced federal funding over the next two years. Walker's budget says the spending would rise some $500 million less than it would if his restrictions and efficiency moves weren't done.

I did completely misunderstand the OP. The above 2 paragraphs alone are a scathing indication of everything that is wrong with America's economics today. People are freaking over $82 M in tax cuts that are under the stipulation that $82 M is directed back into the Wisconsin economy (where it will create private sector growth) and yet the same people say nothing about the 800 lb gorilla strolling through the front door. Only in America does the term "Health Care Reform" actually mean "Ridiculous Increases In Costs" and actually have people foolish enough to defend it openly.

Originally posted by Vitchilo

This seems bad... but guess what, most states are gonna be forced to do something like this real soon.

The communist usurpers who call themselves Americans will demand the government print more money.

And the government will be happy to oblige them.

This will end when the dollar ends, which will be soon.

reply to post by Vitchilo


I agree that cuts are necessary to bring down debt, but these cuts need to be made in conjunction to other actions. What Walker is doing is not in the interests of the state, it is political and ideological. We can argue that Walker intends to bring down debt (who would not, it's great for publicity) but this would be because of his ideological bias, not necessarly because of what's right. First off when Walker came in he added tax cuts for businesses:

With the state facing an up to $3.3 billion shortfall in the 2011-'13 budget, passing the proposal would mean lawmakers and Walker would have to find more spending cuts later. Overall, the bills in Walker's special session would increase the 2011-'13 shortfall by up to $142 million, including the estimated $49 million added to the next budget's deficit when Walker on Monday signed a bill giving state tax breaks for health savings accounts.

www.jsonline.com...

While I believe tax cuts can be essential to small businesses during certain periods. Corporate tax cuts have been proven uneffective during hard financial times. If you intend to force workers to pony up and cooperate with cuts, the same must be applied all around. Cutting taxes for much of the wealthy, for certain businesses who are hording their money, cutting down on employees, shifting jobs overseas, hiring illigals in anycase, and all the while cutting down public programmes, this to me is counter productive and rather hypocritical. You are only adding to the deficit nothing more.

Meanwhile, we heard Walker saying this:

"It is about getting Wisconsin working again, and to make that happen, we need a balanced budget that works — and an environment where the private sector can create 250,000 jobs over the next four years."

and then we heard stories like this:

Kelly McMahon, who teaches kindergarten in Milwaukee, said her school was already so underfunded that she spent $3,000 of her own money this year on supplies such as books, construction paper and paint.

news.yahoo.com...

His plan causes more harm than to actually solving the problem, but hey, I trust he doesn't care, he has his handlers to cater to. Reagan did a similar thing as president, cut billions of dollars worth of taxes, brought down the tax rate from 50% to 29% and after 5 years or so, debt rose from $900 billion to a whopping $2.6 trillion. Really, people still buy Reaganomics, it never ceases to amaze me.

I wonder if Walker is willing to cut down his income and his pals as well? Has he? Is he setting an example?

Originally posted by mnemeth1

Originally posted by Vitchilo

This seems bad... but guess what, most states are gonna be forced to do something like this real soon.

The communist usurpers who call themselves Americans

I could swear I was still living in the 60's. I wonder how, after 20 years, are communists still the enemy? Maybe they are a convenient enemy? I don't know. I look at China and Vietnam today, so called communist nations, and they are nothing of themselves during the 80's and prior today. Busineses are jumping down to China, Vietnam and all these other nations for the cheap labour, taxes are being cut like heck, labour is so dirt cheap you could swear it was slavery, and here we are, in the United states, one of only two developed countries without universal "socialist" healthcare, and we are screaming about the communists.

reply to post by Southern Guardian


You'll get what you want, along with what is coming to you.

I'll be laughing all the way to the bank as my silver appreciates to 2000 an ounce.

Originally posted by mnemeth1
reply to post by Southern Guardian

 

You'll get what you want, along with what is coming to you.

uhuh, I've heard it all before from many members on this forum. I'll tell ya, Obama is just the same to me as the others considering his actions over the patriot act and so forth, but in terms of communists having some conspiracy to overtake America? I've got red dawn amongst my DVD collections, I don't need a re enactment on this forum.

This country has many problems, none of which have to do with communists. Communism is just an outdated scapegoat from the real problems in this country, it's a distraction.... along with blaming the jews and vice versa.

I'll be laughing all the way to the bank as my silver appreciates to 2000 an ounce.

oh my you are so confident.

Originally posted by Southern Guardian

oh my you are so confident.

You shouldn't laugh.

He is going to make alot of money.

reply to post by Exuberant1


he's gonna need lots of money to pay the armed guards if he's safely gonna make it to the bank....
over a billion dollar rise in just medicaid costs.....
that's alot of poor people!! many who probably have at least one person in the home working!! just not makiing enough money to be able to support their family.....

if things go down in the way I expect them to, being rich might not be that great of a thing, since all those poor people are really, really gonna be angry when the states and federal gov't can't prop them up anymore! and they'll know not to look at the middle class for much help, since so many of the poor will have recently fallen from that middle class and know that the money isn't there!!!

but well, wall street is appearing healthier, and we all still have our capital gains tax breaks, so I guess all is grand in the land of oz....