Democrats on the legislature’s budget panel voice skepticism over Governor Scott Walker’s spending plans. State Senator Lena Taylor of Milwaukee is wanted to know about the the governor’s proposal to add more than half a billion dollars in new spending for K-12 schools.
“Is it real, I think is the question that I would ask. Or is he punting, so that the legislature will have to actually govern?” Taylor said Walker employed “the same tactic” while serving as Milwaukee County executive. “He would give these unrealistic, irresponsible budgets that he knew wouldn’t fly. And then the county board would have to do the work, and govern.”
“This budget really in the K-12 funding is more of an investment in Scott Walker’s reelection than it is in the state of Wisconsin,” said state Senator Jon Erpenbach.
Representative Gordon Hintz of Oshkosh questioned Walker’s plan to cut tuition for students at UW System campuses by 5 percent. “We’ll have to look at his proposal, but to me it’s reflective of a governor who’s trying to introduce a shiny object” to distract from previous cuts to the UW.
Hintz noting that this is a “paper budget.” As always, it falls to the Joint Committee on Finance to work through the governor’s proposals.