5 Billion And Your Money

From Marketplace of Ideas.

A good read from a good blog to follow.

"Gov. Jim Doyle and the state Legislature get to plug the $5 billion hole in state finances when the Legislature convenes in January.

Ripon Mayor Aaron Kramer, a former state legislature staffer, has some ideas, including:

* Abolish the State Patrol. (Where did that idea come from?)
* Start selling, not buying, state land.
* Reduce or eliminate state shared revenue, and let local units of government “determine their own tax rates.”
* Merge the technical college system and the University of Wisconsin two-year colleges.
* Stop raiding segregated funds to fill budget holes.
* Adopt a “paygo” system, where every spending increase has to be matched by a spending cut or a tax increase. (Then again, Congress has that, and how well is that working?
* Revise the state employee retirement system — probably the best idea of all, given the huge unfunded pension obligations of governmental bodies throughout the state.

If the last item doesn’t convince you by itself, this part of a Nov. 2 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story should:

Taxpayers are also expected to take a hit, as the Department of Employee Trust Funds is warning municipalities, counties, school boards and the state that they will have to boost contributions to the pension fund that covers approximately 540,000 active employees and retirees.…

If the city or county pension funds ever did go sour, local taxpayers would be required by state law to make good on retirees’ pension checks, officials said.

These and other ideas are worth discussing at least." Marketplace of Ideas Blog