The Wisconsin Supreme Court is set to rule Tuesday on a legal challenge to a four year-old budget maneuver, and their decision could put a significant hole in the state’s current two year budget. In October of 2007, when Governor Jim Doyle signed a two year budget bill that included a $200 million transfer from the Patients Compensation Fund, an attorney for Wisconsin Medical Society likened the action to a bank robbery. The Medical Society challenged the constitutionality of the transfer. A Dane County judge ruled in December 2008 that the transfer was allowable. But now the state Supreme Court is ready to rule, and if the justices decide the transfer doesn’t meet the constitutional smell test, it’s going to blow a 200 million dollar hole in the current two year state budget – and send lawmakers back to Madison to figure out a fix at a time when many of them would rather be focusing on their reelection campaigns.
Wisconsin News and Sports
