Expanding Secure Detention of Juveniles Illustrates Shortcomings of Budget Process
Early in the budget process, legislators generally make a show of stripping from the biennial budget a lot of the non-fiscal policy measures inserted by the Governor. Although they did that to some extent in the current budget, they have spent the last couple of months adding a lot more, and that was especially true during the work of the Finance Committee that occurred between bar time and breakfast on Wednesday.
GOP leaders spent the bulk of Tuesday in behind-closed-doors budget negotiations to work out the remaining portions of the budget bill – particularly with respect to K-12 education issues and tax policy. Those negotiations resulted in two omnibus motions that were debated and approved by the Finance Committee in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday morning, while the rest of us were sleeping. Committee members then received a 12-page “wrap-up motion” or “budget modification” motion, with 37 different items. It was approved a little before 6:00 a.m., apparently with little debate among the exhausted committee members. That Christmas-tree motion, which is # 999 (or 666 if viewed from a different perspective), adds to the long list of non-fiscal policy items now contained in the budget bill, which already included other pressing matters like making the state safe from the threat of local restrictions on sugary beverages. Here’s a partial list of the latest policy measures added to the bill while most Wisconsinites slept, many of which have no direct fiscal effect on the state and could benefit from more careful scrutiny outside the budget process:
Bail bonds – The bill now includes a very controversial proposal for authorizing bail bond agents – starting in five of the state’s larger counties and then expanding statewide. This proposal, which has been widely criticized by criminal justice experts, accounts for almost 5 pages of the 12-page motion.
Secure juvenile facilities – The motion lengthens from 180 days to 365 days the maximum length for placing juveniles in secure detention in local facilities, which is a concern for us because that was increased from 30 days to 180 days in the last budget and there are no standards to ensure the quality and effectiveness of these new detention programs.
Investigative journalism – The bill severs ties between UW and the Center for Investigative Journalism, by prohibiting the Center from occupying any facilities owned or leased by the Board of Regents and barring UW employees from doing any work related to the Center. Read more in a short article by Matt Rothschild of the Progressive, which offers one possible motive for the provision.
Product liability – The motion modifies and broadens the applicability of retroactive statutory provisions enacted last session to restrict product liability lawsuits. (See this AP article by Kevin Wang.)
Lake Michigan shoreline – This item defines the old location of the Lake Michigan shoreline, which has the effect of clearing the way for property where the Milwaukee transit center is now located to be sold to a private developer. (Read more in this Business Journal article by Sean Ryan and Steve Schultze’s Journal Sentinel article about criticism from Milwaukee county supervisors.)
Payday lending – The amended bill now redefines what “default” means in the context of the state’s payday lending laws, thereby allowing payday lenders to collect after a debt is outstanding for 10 days – rather than the 40-day period under current law.
Video service disconnections – The motion repeals the current statutory provision that prohibits cable companies from disconnecting a subscriber’s service for failure to pay a bill until the bill it is at least 45 days old. (Read more here.)
Before voting against the wrap-up motion, Democrats got their GOP colleagues to add a few items to it, such as designating kringle as the official state pastry. Apparently that important modification sought by Rep. Mason (D Racine) wasn’t enough to persuade him to vote for the amended bill – which was ultimately endorsed by the committee on yet another 12-4, party-line vote.
The practice of putting non-fiscal policy into the budget isn’t new, and one of the latest items – lengthening secure detention – helps illustrate the long history of the practice and the fact that reforming the budget process is long overdue. Secure detention of juveniles in local facilities wasn’t allowed until the late 1980s when Governor Thompson expanded a budget amendment allowing 48-hour detentions. By making his infamous “Vanna White” veto, which deleted various letters and then combining what was left, he created a 10-day secure detention option for juveniles. That disposition was expanded to 30 days in the mid-1990s, and then lengthened to 180 days by a budget amendment two years ago, and now to 365 days in the Christmas tree (wrap-up) motion approved early Wednesday morning.
Whether those juvenile justice changes are good public policy is debatable, but over the last eight years the legislature has never taken the time to have that debate or engage the public. A WCCF press release elaborates on our concerns about this amendment.
A Budget Project Blog post today provides a general overview of the problems with allowing so much non-fiscal policy to be added to the budget, and calls on the public to reassert its right to be involved in these public policy decisions.
Jon Peacock
