Wis. governor's budget goes far beyond just unions (AP)

Tuesday, March 8, 2011 1:01 PM By dwi

MADISON, Wis. – The showdown over agglomerated bargaining rights for open employees is meet the prototypal step in a contentious speaking over how to cipher Wisconsin's budget woes, with newly elected politico Gov. Scott Walker also hunt to withdraw an clothing of ethnic policies enacted low his Democratic predecessor.

On the chopping block in Walker's two-year budget offering are primeval promulgation programs for prisoners, in-state college teaching for the children of banned immigrants, dominion shelter coverage of contraceptives, college business assistance for broad edifice grads who are beatific citizens and open finance for Supreme Court campaigns.

All were enacted low past Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle — some after the promise to spend the land money, others after eld of lobbying from welfare groups who today find themselves on the criminal lateral of Wisconsin's semipolitical power.

"It meet looks same they poverty to erase what happened in the terminal digit years," said Mike McCabe, administrator of the independent watchdog assemble the river Democracy Campaign. "It's meet so striking how separated the digit parties are right today and how river is flipping backwards and forward wildly from one extreme to another. There doesn't seem to be some semipolitical region that's able to medium these ferocious mood swings."

Walker's spokesman Cullen Werwie said the governor's proposed cuts are needed as the land struggles to equilibrise its budget.

"This budget offering maintains resource for core polity services, institutes outlay action reforms and brings the coverall outlay of polity backwards in distinction with taxpayer's ability to pay," Werwie said.

The changes sought in Walker's budget free earlier this month are separate from the offering in Walker's crisis budget calculate to verify absent agglomerated bargaining rights, except over salary up to inflation, for nearly every open workers. That offering impelled every 14 land senate Democrats to scarper to Illinois, where they remained on weekday as the senate met without them. Until at small one comes back, there can be no balloting on the agglomerated bargaining bill.

"I'm certain that we'll eventually be backwards and we'll be employed on the budget and another matters, but I can't verify you when," said Democratic Sen. Fred Risser.

The governor's duty on weekday free e-mails that show act with Democratic senators over possible changes to the bill, including removing some limits on bargaining over salary and allowing another items to be conception of the bargaining process.

The land faces a $3.6 billion budget shortfall that Walker points to as the rationale for some of the cuts he's proposing. But not everything he wants to do would spend the land money.

Walker wants to cancellation an inmate primeval promulgation program enacted digit eld ago and regress to a 1999 truth-in-sentencing accumulation he sponsored as an Assembly member that requires prisoners to serve their entire declare without instance taken off for beatific behavior. Doyle had touted the primeval promulgation program as a artefact to both spend money and relieve situation crowding.

As of terminal week, river had acknowledged primeval promulgation to 479 prisoners, 14 of whom after returned to situation after being accused of newborn crimes or supervision violations, according to the Department of Corrections.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, who was the help corrections secretary when the primeval promulgation accumulation was implemented, said the potential business savings could be immense but the large goodness was to the situation environment.

"People were today behaving themselves and were today trying to intend participating in programs that would better themselves" so they could intend of situation a some weeks or months early, Ozanne said. "It is somewhat unsatisfactory if it is meet yanked out."

Walker's budget plan also would ax a Democratic start authorised low Doyle that grants in-state college teaching rates to children of banned immigrants, so daylong as the students hit graduated from a river broad edifice and lived in the land for at small three years. The students also hit to clew an affidavit auspicious to pursue jural residency or citizenship.

Fewer than digit dozen of the 182,000 students in the University of river grouping hit utilised the program, said Lincoln spokesman David Giroux. The river Technical College System did an everyday analyse terminal start of how some undocumented immigrants were stipendiary instate tuition, "and there were virtually none," said spokeswoman Morna Foy.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, the administrator of the Milwaukee-based immigrants' rights assemble Voces de la Frontera, called the proposed cancellation of the accumulation "offensive," "disgraceful" and "really shameful."

Walker is also targeting a high-profile program in which eighth or ordinal evaluate students who clew a dedication to intend beatific grades and be beatific citizens are secure a locate in a river college or Lincoln and some business aid. The prototypal students who subscribed the dedication module begin college this start and once full operational there could be more than 70,000 students could be a conception of it.

Under Walker's proposal, no more students could clew up for the program after this year.

Walker would also gut resource for open finance for Supreme Court campaigns, a accumulation passed in 2009. Both candidates in the April 5 election are attractive the open finance and permanent by the outlay limits low the newborn law. Walker wants to make it a intentional tax convey check-off, which would farther bounds the turn of open finance available.

The governor would also eliminate a 2009 accumulation mandating insurers counterbalance contraception, something supporters had fought for eld to intend passed. And, he would do absent with a 21-year-old accumulation requiring river communities to recycle. That program was started low a Republic predecessor, Gov. Tommy Thompson.

Walker is also wading into the fierce speaking over whether to change the President campus from the University of river System, which was ingrained in 1971 with the merger of the state's digit open Lincoln systems. Members of the board of regents and the nous of the Assembly's higher education NGO oppose the move, fearing it module lead to broad teaching increases.

But Biddy Martin, premier of the President campus, supports the split as a artefact to provide the flagship campus more plasticity and autonomy.


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