Without a Deal Early This Week, Window Will Close for $165 Million Short-term Savings

As a recent Wisconsin Budge Project Blog post noted, one of the relatively easy ways to close the projected $137 million budget shortfall in the 2010-11 fiscal year is to restructure some state debt. That maneuver, which is part of Governor Walker’s recommendations in the “budget repair bill,” would increase interest payments on state debt by $42 million over the next decade, but would save the state $165 million in the current fiscal year. However, a Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) memo has confirmed that the Legislature is rapidly running out of time to accomplish the debt restructuring.

Read more in the blog post Saturday by the Wisconsin Budget Project.

Jon Peacock