March 28, 2011 11:34 a.m.
Madison — If new quasi-public agencies are included, Gov. Scott Walker's proposed budget would increase overall spending by 1% over two years rather than reduce it as the administration had said earlier this month.
A report released Monday by the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau showed the state would spend a proposed $64.1 billion in state and federal dollars over two years after including amounts that are being transferred to quasi-public authorities like the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That would amount to $609.5 million more over the 2011-'13 budget.
When Walker unveiled his budget proposal on March 1, he said it would cut spending of all dollars by more than $4 billion, or 6%. But those amounts didn't include spending cuts that simply amounted to transferring entities like UW-Madison and a new agency to replace the state Department of Commerce off the state's books.
Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie said that much of the new spending was to help eliminate a more than $3 billion deficit over two years that came from state bills being pushed off into the future as well fast-growing spending in areas such as health-care programs for the poor.
"We're trying to pay off the bills that were due in the past that were not accounted for," Werwie said.
The analysis showed that the number of positions in state government equivalent to full-time employees will drop by 1,200 after accounting for other positions that will be removed from the state's books but not eliminated.
Spending in just the state's main account would go up by $488.4 million, or 1.7%.
Under the proposal, the state would finish the two-year proposed budget on June 30, 2013, with tissue-thin financial reserves of $107.3 million in its main account to handle any unexpected problems. That's enough to run state government for about three days.
The governor's budget proposal also eliminates a provision in state law that requires state agencies to study the costs of outsourcing work worth more than $25,000 against the cost of having state workers handle it. The so-called cost-benefit analyses would be retained only for engineering services at the state Department of Transportation.
Former Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, had also sought unsuccessfully to remove the provision, saying it limited flexibility for his administration. Werwie had no immediate comment.
Walker's proposal would also double the minimum amount needed to trigger competitive bids for state contracts from $25,000 to $50,000. It would also require the Department of Administration to maintain a list of banned contractors who have violated contracts with the state.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/118779749.html
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