As expected, Governor Jim Doyle on Friday used his veto pen on a budget repair bill approved by lawmakers earlier this week.
The Governor says the bill did not go far enough to reduce state spending, by only calling for about $69 million in cuts. Doyle ordered additional reductions in state spending, totaling about $270 million.
The Governor's vetoes include removing a provision to delay $125 million in school aid payments, scaling back a plan to refinance $209 million in tobacco settlement money, and lifting limits on money that can be taken out of the state Transportation Fund. He also cut back a plan to take $22 million out of a fund established to set up the federally mandated Real ID program, limiting the raid to $2 million.
The Governor also restored a provision requiring a statutory balance in the general reserve fund to $65 million, which lawmakers had proposed lowering to $25 million. Doyle says his vetoes should actually leave a balance of $100 million in the fund.
In issuing his veto message, the Governor also blasted Assembly Republicans for rejecting a proposed hospital assessment. Doyle says enacting the plan would have helped the state addressed most of the current deficit, and would have helped hospitals access more federal money.
