The Joint Finance Committee finished their work on the state budget pretty early this morning after an all night session. The Committee adopted a motion that funded the Wisconsin Shares child care subsidy program, authored by Senator Mark Miller (D-Monona) and Representative Tamara Grigsby (D-Milwaukee). The motion eliminated the...
As everyone struggles with the reality of current fiscal deficits at the local, state, and federal levels, the President has recently released the federal budget for FY2010. An analysis of that budget's impact on children and families, titled Imperfect Progress: An Analysis of the President’s FY2010 Budget and its Impact on Children’s...
Gov. Doyle announced the general outline of his plan yesterday for closing the new $1.6 billion hole in the state budget caused by the sharp drop in tax collections. It calls for deep cuts in state agency budgets, furloughs and layoffs of state workers, and a 2.5 percent cut in state aid to schools, counties and municipalities.The...
The Governor and the co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee, Sen. Mark Miller (D-Monona) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison), held a press conference late Thursday to announce additional cuts in the state budget due to a much larger deficit than originally expected. These include additional 5% cuts across the board to all state agencies,...
WCCF and a whole bunch of partners convened a press conference on Tuesday, May 20 to send the message to the Governor and legislators that it is not acceptable to fix the state budget deficit through spending cuts alone. Our aim was to raise awareness of the fact that deep cuts to critical programs would have a devastating effect on the...
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) issued new estimates on May 11 of tax collections this year and in the next biennium. According to the LFB, the state deficit over the next 2 years will be $1.6 billion greater than previously estimated. This grim news could get even worse in the coming weeks. The new LFB figures look only at the...
An op-ed by WCCF Executive Director Charity Elson appeared in the Janesville Gazette on Tuesday, May 12. In the column, Charity argues the merits of a quality rating and improvment system (QRIS) for early care and education. Such a system was proposed in the last two budgets, but did not survive the budget process either time. QRIS has...
On May 4, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up two Florida-based cases to determine if sentencing a person who commits an offense while under the age of 18 to live without the parole (LWOP) is cruel and unusual punishment. In Roper v. Simmons (2005) the Supreme Court banned imposing the death penalty on youth who committed an...
WCCF invites you to honor your mother this year by making a contribution in her name. Your contribution will help ensure that children continue to have a strong voice in Wisconsin so they can reach their full potential. In many ways, the Council is like the grand matriarch for our state’s children. Our work mirrors what all mothers want...
In an op-ed column published on May 3 in the Green Bay Press Gazette, Green Bay Police Chief Jim Arts supported early childhood investments, including the Governor's Quality Rating System proposal. Arts indicated that "one of the most effective ways to reduce crime is to make sure young people get a great start." WCCF is strongly...
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