A week before Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker presents a fiscal 2012 budget, he unveiled a controversial “budget repair” bill that implements a number of strategies, including major employee cuts, to eliminate the state’s current $137 million shortfall.
Walker will unveil a 2012 spending plan Feb. 22. The bill introduced last week is intended to whittle down Wisconsin’s current shortfall.
Lawmakers are debating the measure this week, with Republicans pushing to pass it as early as Thursday.
Among other things, the bill would restructure outstanding general obligation debt to save $165 million, according to the governor’s office.
The refinancing would allow the state to push off debt payments scheduled for 2010 and 2011 into future years.
The $165 million saved through 2011 would be used to pay down one-time costs tied to a state Supreme Court decision on the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund and to make payments under the Minnesota-Wisconsin tax reciprocity program.
The bill must be enacted by Feb. 25 in order to allow the state to refinance the debt before its next debt payment on March 15, Walker said.
The measure’s most controversial provisions would remove nearly all collective-bargaining rights for public employees. Unions could only bargain for wage increases that do not exceed the consumer price index unless voters approve the raise in a referendum.
The bill would require nearly all public employees on the state, local, and school district level to pay half the costs of their pensions and 12.6% of their health care premiums.
Walker said the concessions would save $30 million in the general fund by June 30 and $300 million through the next two years.
The bill also authorizes the Department of Administration to sell state heating plants. Proceeds that are not used to pay off outstanding debt would be put into the budget stabilization fund.
The bill has sparked protests across the state. Public- and private-sector unions held a press conference Monday saying the measure was an attack on labor and vowing a series of protests in Madison and across the state. In response, Walker said he would call out the National Guard if necessary.
