State lawmakers talk about voluntarily cutting budget

Talk about it

Wisconsin legislators don’t have to cut a dime from their budget. But their leaders are talking about it anyway, to help cover a deficit which has grown to around $6.5 billion.

Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan will wait until the official estimate of the new deficit comes out this week from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

But his spokeswoman Rebekah Sweeney is talking about serious cutbacks in the Assembly.

Last week, Doyle said state employees would be furloughed for 16 days without pay during the next two years, up to 1,100 workers would be laid off, and most others would have 2 percent pay raises rescinded.

Sweeney says lawmakers might get their daily expense budgets reduced. And for their staff members, there’s talk of layoffs, furloughs, and pay cuts.

Carrie Lynch, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, says the constitution protects lawmakers from furloughs.

But Decker and Doyle have both said they’ll work eight days a year for free anyway.

Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, has said he’ll give back the amount of pay that’s equal to the state employees’ furloughs.

He was also among those giving up a 5 percent raise at the start of the year.

Lawmakers are not required to take pay cuts and they still have to pay taxes on what they voluntarily pass up.

The state courts are also exempt from the governor’s proposals.

Tags: news, wisconsin, deficit