Lawmakers buck Walker’s road plan
MADISON - In a move not seen in at least 24 years, top lawmakers yanked dozens of provisions from Gov. Scott Walker’s budget bill, including the entire transportation plan put forward by their fellow Republican.
That last move means GOP lawmakers on their own will either reach a compromise on how to fund highways and bridges or face a tight transportation budget with dramatic delays on the Zoo Interchange and other projects around the state.
The co-chairs of the Legislature’s budget committee, Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) and Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette), removed every policy item in Walker’s budget that didn’t have a direct financial impact for the state. Lawmakers haven’t done that to a budget from a governor of their own party since some time before 1993, according to the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget office.
The move drew praise from budget purists who argue that the public doesn’t get to weigh in on policy when it gets stuffed into the state’s tax and spending plan.
“I strongly applaud the move,” Sen. Rob Cowles (R-Allouez) said in a statement. “I have said, for several budgets, that these items should all be stripped out and discussed through the committee process with public input, as separate legislation.”
As the co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee, Nygren and Darling have broad powers to work with the Legislative Fiscal Bureau to identify policy items that don’t directly affect the state’s finances and remove them from the governor’s proposed budget.
In a statement, Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said the governor is pleased that lawmakers had kept his school funding plan and “welcomes the opportunity to work with lawmakers” on road funding.
“He is open to many different options as long as they don’t include an increase in the gas tax,” Evenson said.
Other policies being dropped from the budget Thursday would have:
Made Wisconsin the only state in the nation with no requirement on schools to teach a minimum number of hours or days each year.
Required the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents to establish a policy for monitoring faculty and staff teaching workloads.
Written into state law a 2015 statement from the Board of Regents supporting the free exchange of ideas on campus — including those considered offensive.
Repealed the rest of the state’s so-called prevailing wage laws, which set minimum pay levels for private-sector workers on public works projects such as highways.
Made it more difficult for some victims of job discrimination to recover their legal fees from their employers and in some cases required them to pay the legal costs for their bosses.
Tied funding of technical colleges to report cards on their performance.
In dropping the governor’s transportation plan, Darling and Nygren essentially signaled they would start from scratch.
So for now at least, lawmakers aren’t going along with the large increases in aid for local government roads that Walker had proposed. Lawmakers will also start their deliberations assuming they won’t borrow more money for highways. Walker had sought $500 million in loans for those projects.
Under this new scenario, work on the Zoo Interchange and I-94 south of Milwaukee would be delayed because just $15 million would be available for massive projects in southeast Wisconsin over the next two years.
The state would also spend $185 million less than Walker wants on other major projects around Wisconsin — a daunting prospect that could lead to more deal-making by lawmakers.
“A base budget basically creates the prospect of a crisis in every corner of Wisconsin,” said Pat Goss, executive director of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association.