WE ARE WISCONSIN: STATE BUDGET BACKGROUNDER HEALTHCARE Medicaid : In total, this budget includes more than $460 million in unspecified cuts to Wisconsin’s Medicaid programs, with a series of problematic outcomes: Power is needlessly centralized: This budget gives the Secretary of the Department of Health Services nearly complete authority to determine cuts and policy changes with little to no legislative oversight. Burden shifted to families: According to the Save BadgerCare Coalition, premiums are expected to increase, co-pays will go up, and further restrictions will be placed on the range of services covered, all the while creating more red tape for applicants and existing participants. Families will lose coverage: An analysis by Georgetown University’s Center on Children and Families demonstrated these changes will result in tens of thousands of people losing their coverage. Family Care: Not only does this budget freeze the number of counties participating in Family Care and the number of people served in each county, it also cuts the program by $265 million. This means that more people will be put on wait lists for critical home and community-based healthcare services that directly benefit the elderly and people with disabilities. Women’s Health: Walker’s budget effectively guts critical health services for women – including lifesaving cancer screenings, HIV testing, birth control and annual exams – that tens of thousands of Wisconsin women benefit from annually. EDUCATION Public Schools: Budget systematically steamrolls Wisconsin public schools and puts college out of reach for thousands of local students while giving corporations large tax cuts. Targets critical education programs: In one foul swoop, Walker’s budget cripples grants for at risk children, advanced placement course, alcohol and drug prevention programs as well as science, math and technology programs. Puts privatization ahead of public schools: While gutting public schools, this budget allows a family of four, earning nearly $74,000 per year, to receive state payments to subsidize the cost of their children to attend a private school in Milwaukee or Racine. Strips revenue, increases state spending: All told, schools lose $1.6 billion in this budget, while total state spending actually increases. Higher Education: Walker’s budget slashes more than $250 million in funding for the UW system and an additional $35.8 million in funding for Wisconsin technical colleges. Puts the dream of college out of reach for thousands: This budget slashes more than $250 million from the UW system – $94.4 million from UW-Madison alone -- increasing tuition and freezing financial aid funding, effectively cutting the link between tuition increases and financial aid funding. Hampers opportunities to retrain for new jobs in sluggish economy: Under this budget, Wisconsin technical colleges will lose more than $35 million in annual funding – wholly 30% of their total allocation from the state – resulting in a 5.5% tuition increase and a $9.45 million budget shortfall.
ENVIRONMENT Exempts polluters from basic standards: Allows polluters to request exemption from pollution standards in their permits before the Department of Natural Resources even has the opportunity to issue the polluter a permit. Burdens communities with cost of upgrades to wastewater infrastructure: The budget makes it much more expensive for communities to obtain loans through the Clean Water Fund Program, increasing the cost of upgrades to their wastewater infrastructure. Guts recycling programs: Slashes $38 million from the municipal and county recycling grant program, jeopardizing the ability of local governments to operate their recycling programs. LOCAL SERVICES Puts police, fire and snow plow services in jeopardy: In reducing the state’s largest property tax relief program by $76 million, this budget effectively eliminates the ability of county and municipal governments to raise local revenue to maintain public services such as police, fire and snow plowing. Public transportation systems largely abandoned: With nearly $28 million in cuts to general transportation aid, local governments are faced with even less money to operate and maintain public transportation systems. At risk families and youth put at further risk: Programs that focus on juvenile crime prevention efforts and seek alternatives to youth incarceration will be slashed by nearly $10 million. TAXES Giveaways: Tax cuts and credits benefiting Walker donors. Loopholes for the wealthy to avoid taxes: Despite claiming the state is broke, the budget creates a loophole for investors to avoid paying income tax on capital gains and creates an increasing business tax credit that will cost the state $129 million in revenue by 2016. And loopholes for out-of-state corporations to avoid taxes: The budget creates a gateway for out-of-state corporations to do business in Wisconsin without paying their share of taxes. All told, this will cost Wisconsin $47 million in revenue. Back taxes to go unpaid: With the elimination of 56 positions at the Department of Revenue, somewhere between $350 and $400 million in back taxes will be left unpaid. Hikes: Forces working families to bear state’s burden Targets poor, elderly with increased taxes: Changes to the Homestead Tax Credit effectively raise taxes on working families and seniors by $13.6 million over the biennium. Penalizes large, working families with increased taxes: Under the Earned Income Tax Credit, Walker’s budget effectively raises taxes on working families by $56 million – and penalizes families with three or more children with tax increases of up to $518 per year.