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...
The June 20 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a very good article by Guy Boulton about the potential consequences of the Medicaid budget cuts and policymaking changes in the biennial budget bill. Unfortunately, the article doesn’t tell us anything concrete about what those consequences will be because that was not resolved by the bill;...
For the next week or so, the Department of Health Services (DHS) will have the power to make changes in Medicaid and BadgerCare policy that conflict with state statutes, by adopting rules that may supersede the statutes. That power took effect after the State Supreme Court overturned the ruling that had blocked implementation of the...
Changes in the state budget and budget repair legislation will make it harder for low-income workers in the public sector to make ends meet, according to a new analysis by the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families. A two-page brief released today examines these changes and their impact on the families of people employed in public...
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau issued a memo last week that has generated some confusion about the state’s fiscal situation, because some people incorrectly interpreted it to mean that the state would have a sizeable balance at the end of the 2011-13 biennium. Instead, the LFB analysis shows that the recently approved 2011-13 budget bill...
Now that the Legislature has completed its work on the 2011-13 budget, the Wisconsin Budget Project has updated its comprehensive (44 page) summary of the budget bill. It primarily focuses on the issues relating to children and families, and it shows how each policy item evolved over the course of the budget process. Each section also...
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