Wisconsin: Scott Walker borrowing more to balance Wisconsin state budget

[Scuba]

http://m.host.madison.com/ct/news/local/writers/mike_ivey/scott-walker-borrowing-more-to-balance-wisconsin-state-budget/article_17c3d58a-2d3a-11e3-90fe-001a4bcf887a.html

But a new report from the non-partisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance shows the state has actually been borrowing more money to balance the books. The two-year, $70 billion state budget signed in July authorizes an additional $2.05 billion in borrowing, with $1.64 billion of it paid for with general fund revenues. That continues a borrowing trend that has tripled since 1999 under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Under Walker’s 2013-15 budget, debt service will climb even higher, claiming 5.26% of general fund dollars in 2014 and 4.88% in 2015, according to WISTAX. The state’s historical debt level target has been 4%.

The main reason for the borrowing increase is Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for low-income and disabled residents. Spending there will increase an average of 8.7% annually over the next two years compared to a 2.2% increase for schools and 0.5% for county and municipal shared revenues. “These numbers illustrate what has been a decade-long shift in state priorities from local assistance to Medicaid,” says the report.
Walker has only added to the problem, some have argued, by rejecting $4.4 billion in federal Medicaid assistance, linked to Obamacare, over the next decade.

Due to the increases, Medicaid expenditures now account for 15.1 percent of total state general fund spending. That’s a record high and up from an average of about 10 percent during 1985-2003.

Emphasis mine. So Walker is borrowing against our children's futures to finance his Presidential bona fides with the teabillies. Some fiscal genius all right.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Jeez, Scuba--I don't think psychopathy excludes low cunning.

Nobody said he was too dumb to come up with new ways to screw the state.

[postulater]

2. Wow! We need a 'Help Scott Balance Your Budget' campaign.

We could canvass Walker supporters and ask for donations of $20.14 to help him balance the state budget.

He didn't want to harm his rich donors, who only have one vote, by taxing them. So just borrows the difference. Then he can hide the borrowing, pretend nobody will notice, and make himself look good to the people who actually hold the vote. A good investment for a rich donor.

But since government service should be privatized anyway, the good people who supported him with their votes should be happy to donate to the cause. Only they don't know they could help out by donating since he lies about the debt.

So we could help out by publicizing the debt problem and asking Walker supporters to pitch in. After all, it is their Christian duty.

[lutefisk]

3. But this contradicts what Walker says

From his Washington Post piece:

"Working with the state legislature, we took a $3.6?billion budget deficit and turned it into a budget surplus of more than half a billion dollars. And we built the largest rainy-day fund balance in state history."