Issue Position: Economy and the Budget

Issue Position

All budgets passed by the state legislature in Wisconsin must be balanced based on a constitutional amendment passed decades ago.

Budgets are balanced based on economic projections such as spending and revenue (tax and fee collection).

Budgets are a moral compass of who is in charge. What leaders prioritize and how they balance the budget tells a lot about whom they are really working for.

The 2009-11 budget approved by the then Democratic majority had approximately 66 billion dollars in spending. The current budget written and passed by this Republican majority has over $70 billion in spending.

The priorities are starkly different. While the 2009-10 budget protected our public schools, our students in the university system and funding for roads and healthcare, the latest 2 budgets have devastated our public schools, tech colleges and university system while refusing healthcare for 80,000 of our citizens who cannot afford their own insurance and bonding billions of dollars to pay for tax breaks for the highest income levels.

So, while lacking the common sense to manage our budget, this legislature has borrowed more that any previous legislature in history and then claim to have a surplus. Stop and think about that; if you have a home mortgage, say upwards of $80,000, along with a car loan to pay off but you carry a $3,000 balance in the bank would that mean you have a surplus?

Of course not. And a responsible homeowner would do all they could to pay off their debts before spending more above their means.

Source