Governor pleased budget committee kept his plans for wiping out deficit

Talk about it

Gov. Jim Doyle is happy that the Legislature’s budget committee kept his plans intact for wiping out the state’s $6.6 budget deficit.

The final vote came around 5:30 a.m. today, when 12 Democrats voted yes and four Republicans voted no to send the whole package to the Legislature.

Deputy Administration Secretary Dan Schooff says it’s too early to tell if the governor will undo any changes the panel made.

Among other things, the committee tweaked Doyle’s plan for the early prison release of non-violent felons.

It refused to allow just one license plate on vehicles, scrapped a $15 increase in the fine for not wearing seat belts, and refused to use gun registration fee revenues to pay for other law enforcement programs.

The majority Democrats also added millions in funding for roads and other projects in their own party’s districts.

And they still gave Doyle most of what he wanted in the budget. That included numerous policy changes and a host of tax and fee hikes, including a 75-cent jump in the cigarette tax and a 75-cent monthly fee on phone lines.

Minority Republicans slammed Democrats for making budget deals in secret holding the most important votes in the middle of the night and last holiday weekend, when few of us were paying attention and rushing off to Lake Geneva today for a big-money golf fundraiser for the campaigns of Senate Democrats.

Tags: budget committee, state deficit, wisconsin, vote