Dave Hansen, It's All Yours

From Fox 11.

Senate passes budget

Updated: Thursday, 18 Jun 2009, 8:26 AM CDT
Published : Wednesday, 17 Jun 2009, 9:13 PM CDT

The Wisconsin Senate has passed the state budget on an 17-16 vote with no Republican support.

""We had to make some tough decisions," said Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay. Hansen also criticized Repubilcans for not offering any alternatives.

"You didn't have a plan. I haven't seen it. Where would you have cut? Where did you think we should've cut?" Hansen asked." Senate passes budget

DAVE HANSEN, THIS IS YOUR BUDGET! A $100,000.00 for a stone barn will not protect you after the people of Wisconsin see how bad you are screwing this state and it's people who live here.

Dave, it's your baby!

Update From the Green Bay Press. No wonder Dave Hansen doesn't get alternatives from republicans.

"Democrats might reach deal on budget in secret Sans committee, Open Meetings Law not applicable

By SCOTT BAUER • The Associated Press • June 19, 2009


MADISON — A special committee of legislative leaders won't convene to work out a state budget deal to plug a $6.6 billion shortfall until at least Tuesday.

And it may not meet at all.

Delaying the creation of a conference committee clears the way for Democratic leaders in both the Senate and Assembly to meet in secret before Tuesday to reach a deal. Lawmakers are allowed to do so because without the committee being created, there is no obligation to comply with Open Meetings Law.

Leaders could talk among themselves and possibly reach a deal without ever calling a meeting or allowing Republicans, who are in the minority, to participate.

The Senate recessed Thursday without voting to create a conference committee to reach a deal, though the chamber is scheduled to meet again Tuesday. Senate President Fred Risser, D-Madison, said he expects leaders from the Assembly and Senate to talk informally between now and then to see whether a conference committee will be needed.

Any negotiations on reaching a budget deal now should be done in the open in a conference committee, said Jay Heck, executive director of government watchdog group Common Cause in Wisconsin.

"The less public it is, the less confidence citizens have in the end result," he said. "When citizens are left in the dark, they think the worst about the process."

Gov. Jim Doyle's spokesman, Lee Sensenbrenner, wouldn't say directly whether the governor's staff would be meeting with legislative leaders on a budget deal before a conference committee is called.

"There's always a lot of behind-the-scenes preparatory work that goes into things like this," Sensenbrenner said.

The $62.2 billion two-year spending plan passed each house in dramatically different forms. An identical budget must pass each house before it can go to Doyle, also a Democrat, for his consideration.

There are major differences between the two budgets.

The Assembly's version includes a tax on oil companies that could be passed along to drivers by hiking gas prices up another 4.4 cents a gallon. The Senate removed the tax. Doyle wanted to tax oil companies, but only if the companies were banned from passing along their added costs to customers at the pump.

The Senate increased taxes on capital gains, removing all exemptions. The Assembly lowered the allowable exemption from 60 percent to 40 percent, as Doyle wanted.

Dozens of other differences also were expected to be worked out by the expected conference committee.

Waiting until at least Tuesday to create the committee wastes time and puts the budget in jeopardy of not passing before the new fiscal year begins July 1, said Rep. Pedro Colon, D-Milwaukee.

"I think everybody on this side wants to get truckin'," he said.

Doyle and legislative leaders have pushed to pass the budget by July 1 to avoid losing millions of dollars in federal money and to enact spending cuts and tax and fee increases that plug the record-high $6.6 billion budget hole.

Much of the work on the budget has already occurred in secret. Assembly Democrats met behind closed doors for five days to work out changes eventually approved by the full Assembly during a 12-hour session that ended at 5:30 a.m. Saturday.

Members of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee also secretly worked out deals before voting in public, often late at night. The committee passed the budget around 6 a.m. after an all-night meeting." Democrats might reach deal on budget in secret | greenbaypressgazette.com | Green Bay Press-Gazette