Jim Doyle, Lying To The People Of Wisconsin

Another great read from the Lakeland-Times and Richard Moore on Jim Doyle.

Is Jim Doyle TELLING THE TRUTH?

Why does the rest of the MSM not question this? Maybe it is time for the Lakeland-Times to be the paper of record in Wisconsin. Obviously no one else knows how to report real news.

A good read, enjoy real reporting!

"1/2/2009 9:04:00 AM
Is Doyle telling the truth on state budget deficit?" Is Doyle telling the truth on state budget deficit?
Richard Moore
Investigative Reporter

In November, just as the extent of the national economic crisis was becoming known, Gov. Jim Doyle let Wisconsin's citizens know just how bad the state's budget outlook was going to be, and it wasn't any better than the national forecast.

The state, the governor said, was facing a $5.4 billion deficit, the worst in its history and among the worst in the nation. No sooner than he said it than newspapers began to repeat it, wrapping the mysterious numbers in blaring headlines and leaving them for their readers in relentless articles, like lumps of coal beneath a Christmas tree.

A month later, the governor set off to Washington, hat in hand, laying out the reasons for the deficit and presenting a 'wish list' of infrastructure projects worth more than $3.5 billion, federal money for which, he said, would help ease the Badger state's pain.

The governor seemed to be asking a federal Santa to turn his lumps of coal into toys and candy.

There's no doubt visions of sugar plums were dancing in his head.

On Dec. 12, he testified before the House Appropriations Committee, using dire language. If it hadn't been for the nation's bad economy, he told the committee, his administration would have had things under control.

"Wisconsin's budget, which is typical of state budgets, is required to be balanced by law," Doyle testified. "So when the economy slows, we have to adjust. Until September we were on course to meet our revenue projections."

Then, Doyle said, he made cuts in state government spending to compensate for the unexpected downturn.

"I made $270 million in cuts to state government this year," he said. "Those cuts, when combined with actions we took in our original two-year spending plan, totaled $500 million in reductions to state agencies. These actions were recognized as an ability to adapt and manage a challenging fiscal situation, and Wall Street upgraded our bond rating."

Unfortunately, the governor continued, the economic crisis finally caught up with Wisconsin.

"We predicted the slumping economy would leave us $28 billion in revenues as we prepared for our 2009-11 biennial budget," Doyle testified. "But after what happened this fall, we now predict only $25 billion in revenues over the two-year period. The projected drop in revenue, combined with expected needed increases in programs such as unemployment and Medicaid, leaves us facing our largest budget gap ever - $5.4 billion over the next two years, or 17 percent of our biennial budget."

That same day, Doyle asked federal officials for $3.7 billion in federal funds from a proposed economic stimulus package. The request included $600 million to help clean up the Fox River Valley, $298 million in highway projects, $993 million for energy conservation, and $754 million for public school building, including $474 million in school improvements that voters had already turned down in various referenda.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin jumped on the proposal immediately.

"In tough economic times, that money should be spent on projects that are absolutely necessary to fill the budget gap," Mark Jefferson, executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said. "Projects rejected by voters clearly do not fall under that category. Wisconsin taxpayers are clearly far more willing to make the tough decisions needed to control spending than their governor."

It was hypocritical for Doyle to say that taxes must be raised or vital services would be cut when he proposed spending nearly half a billion dollars on projects the taxpayers didn't even want, Jefferson added.



Is the deficit real?

Perhaps more important, GOP leaders essentially accused Doyle of crying wolf, saying his projection of a $5.4 billion deficit was overblown - way overblown.

According to the GOP, nearly half of the proclaimed deficit was actually comprised of new spending requests contained in the proposed 2009-11 budget. Get rid of those requests, the GOP said, and 50 percent of the deficit disappeared.

The Democrats were simply creating a cover for a planned "tax and spend mode" of governance, the Republican Party said in a statement. The GOP officials pointed to a report entitled "State Deficit: How big? Why?" by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX).

The report, released Dec. 4, did indeed attribute $2.76 billion of Doyle's projected deficit to new spending requests and further said Doyle's numbers were "heavily based on assumptions" that could be misleading.

"[The report] notes that granting those spending requests and funding past state promises (the "structural deficit"), would result in state expenditure growth of 8 percent next year and 3.1 percent the year following," WISTAX said in a statement summarizing the study. "The report questioned that assumption since annual state general fund spending increases have averaged only 3.4 percent over the past decade."

In addition to assuming major expenditure increases, state deficit predictions also presumed that state officials would take no action to close the deficit over the next two-and-a-half years, WISTAX stated.

"Of course, how realistic these forecasts are hinges on what can be projected 31 months hence about the economy, federal actions, state tax collections, and expenditures," the group continued. "Current projections show tax collections for this year and the next two years totaling $1.33 billion below 2008 collections."

A third factor contributing to the estimated deficit was what WISTAX called years of unwise fiscal planning. During the 1990s, the group stated, the state overcommitted to new programs for schools, health and welfare, corrections, and tax relief, thus beginning every budget after 1995 with a structural deficit - future unfunded commitments - of between $ .6 billion and $1.3 billion.

"With headlines and politicians repeating deficit estimates of more than $5 billion, the public is left thinking that a solution must require at least $5 billion in permanent spending cuts or tax increases," WISTAX concluded. "Yet much of that figure assumes unrealistic spending requests, structural imbalances carried over from the past, and a failure to address fiscal problems immediately but instead allowing them to compound and grow."



Why would the governor mislead?

All of which begs the question: Why would Doyle throw out such a misleading and large number, knowing it contained, at the very least, $2.76 billion in new spending requests from individual state agencies, much of which was unrealistic and unlikely to be approved, even by the governor himself?

One answer, of course, could be that federal money and a chance for the state to get its hands on it.

But GOP state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), in her weekly column, had a different take on Doyle's motives.

"I have to wonder if the governor isn't purposely sounding like Chicken Little, painting the dire picture of the worst budget crisis in Wisconsin history, whipping state residents into a collective depression of epic proportions," Lazich wrote in her piece. "Why the bearer of such bad news? Think about it. The governor overstates the budget debacle by a country mile, allowing him to offer dramatic, headline-grabbing spending cuts as solutions."

If a Republican posed such measures, she stated, the press would label them "draconian."

"Editorial boards would rave, though, about Doyle, calling the governor and his moves, 'courageous,'" Lazich wrote. "Undoubtedly, the governor and legislative Democrats will also salivate at the opportunity to seek new revenues, i.e., raise taxes. At the end of the day, when the dust clears and the true budget deficit is actually much smaller, the governor and Democrat lawmakers will claim victory and come off as fiscal conservative heroes."

That illusion is critical, she concluded, because Doyle is up for possible re-election in two years and needs something to separate himself from an expected liberal agenda by Democrats in the Legislature.

So far, legislative Democrats have remained largely silent about the GOP charges of a trumped-up deficit, choosing instead to talk about the need to protect health care and education and to create jobs within the context of a $5.4 billion deficit.

They have let Doyle and his administration's numbers take the lead, in other words. Soon, though, lawmakers will have to speak, and the wait won't be long. The legislative session kicks off next week, and, with majorities in both chambers, the Democrats' legislative agenda will quickly give the party its voice.

Whether they promise sugar plums and give us coal - the GOP prediction of higher taxes - or deliver a populist present of economic rejuvenation and fiscal responsibility remains to be seen.