Part of the budget bill’s strategy for closing the deficit while freeing up money for highways and tax cuts is to transfer $37 million per year from the federal block grant known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The budget and budget repair bills reduce by $111 million over three years the TANF funding that is...
Not only does the budget make $467 million in unspecified cuts to BadgerCare, but it establishes a new process for making fundamental policy changes that provides little to no legislative or public input. The bill includes a sweeping and unprecedented shift in decision-making authority from the Legislature to unelected officials in the...
A well-educated workforce is more important than ever to the state’s economic future. Yet this budget cuts nearly $750 million in general state aid from the public school system over the biennium. As a result, we risk weakening Wisconsin’s commitment to our public K-12 education system and jeopardizing educational opportunities for the...
"31 Ways in 31 Days" Begins the Process of Rebalancing Wisconsin’s Priorities Now that Wisconsin Act 32, the 2011-13 biennial budget, has been signed into law, the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families (WCCF) has turned its focus forward to promoting positive change for children and families in Wisconsin. Throughout the budget...
WCCF early learning policy analyst Dave Edie has put out a scorecard examining what happened in the 2011-13 Wisconsin biennial budget, including analysis on YoungStar, Wisconsin Shares,home visiting, 4-year-old Kindergarten, and Head Start. For more information, go to the Wisconsin Early Learning Coalition website.
The Governor has signed the 2011-13 biennial budget after making some minor vetoes, and the Wisconsin Budget Project has updated – probably for the final time – the comparative budget summary in order to reflect those vetoes.The comparison shows how selected provisions were modified in the budget process, as well as the fiscal effect of...
WCCF Commends the Governor on this Move to Help Discourage Kids’ Use of Harmful Tobacco ProductsAs we noted in a May 27th blog post, the Joint Finance Committee voted for a budget amendment to change the tax on moist snuff tobacco products to a weight-based tax. WCCF joined numerous other groups in opposing such a change, for the...
Republicans Renew Rule Rescinding Readability RequirementsAs we noted in a May 3rd blog post, the WI Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) issued an emergency rule in February suspending improvements made in fall 2010 to the readability of private health insurance plans and electronic access to such plans. Last Thursday, the...
The Governor decided to sign into law the changes in the budget bill relating to unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, notwithstanding the unanimous recommendation of the UI Council to veto those changes. A Wisconsin Budget Project Blog post today examines the threat that poses to the future of the consensus process that has generally...
For anyone who worries about how partisan politics has become, there was some encouraging news Thursday when the state’s Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council voted unanimously for a couple of significant motions relating to Wisconsin’s unemployment insurance (UI) system. The Council, which is made up of half labor and half management...
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