Republican legislators continue to hammer at the governor's budget. GOP members of the Joint Committee on Finance are worried Governor Jim Doyle takes the state in the wrong direction.
“It's really puzzling how, when we have a five-point-nine billion dollar deficit, instead of getting our house in order, we're raising taxes, which will kill jobs,” said state Senator Alberta Darling of River Hills. “It's counterproductive, and I don't know of a lot of other states going that route. Tax increases are job killers.”
State Representative Robin Vos said the governor's office and Democrats on the budget committee have had months to fashion the spending plan – and it's not likely JFC Republicans will be able to offers a competing version of the two year state spending plan. “Is it possible that the four us can craft together a $63 billion alternative budget? I'm not going to say that it's impossible, but we are at a definite disadvantage,” said Vos. “My preference would be to try to correct the mistakes that we have seen in their budget.” Vos says he wants to fix the most egregious parts of the budget that are going to hurt job growth in Wisconsin.
Still, as members of the minority, the impact of the GOP members is expected to be minimal. “We'll have an opportunity to fix less than one half of one percent of this,” said state Representative Phil Montgomery. “We're basically being shut out.”
