Really....say it isn't so...yep...and guess where I heard this little tidbit of information...Fox News...but you would never guess it, because listening to them you would think Shep Smith never reported it.
But here it is...
2010-11 General Fund Condition Statement
Based upon the November/December reports, the administration's general fund condition
statement for 2010-11 reflects a gross ending balance (June 30, 2011) of $67.4 million and a net balance (after consideration of the $65.0 million required statutory balance) of $2.4 million.
Our analysis indicates a general fund gross balance of $121.4 million and a net balance of $56.4 million. This is $54.0 million above that of the administration's reports. The 2010-11general fund condition statement is shown in Table 1.
TABLE 1
Estimated 2010-11 General Fund Condition Statement
2010-11
Revenues
Opening Balance, July 1 $25,718,100
Taxes 12,691,400,000
Departmental Revenues
Tribal Gaming 22,330,300
Other 833,733,300
Total Available $13,573,181,700
Appropriations
Gross Appropriations $14,109,283,800
Compensation Reserves 95,962,700
Biennial Appropriation Adjustment -242,677,200
Sum Sufficient Reestimates -121,637,800
Less Lapses -389,112,600
Net Appropriations $13,451,818,900
Balances
Gross Balance $121,362,800
Less Required Statutory Balance -65,000,000
Net Balance, June 30 $56,362,800
You can find it on Page 2 of this document.... Budget Document (careful pdf)
So it makes you wonder what this is really all about...because from looking at the numbers there's no apparent reason to bust the balls of Union workers...especially after reading this.
To achieve that end, he has proposed a $137 million budget “repair” bill that he intends to use as a vehicle to:
1. Undermine the long-established collective bargaining rights of public employee unions, which have for 80 years been the strongest advocates for programs that serve the great mass of Wisconsinites, as opposed to wealthy elites and corporate special interests. As Racine’s Democratic state Rep. Cory Mason says, the governor’s bill is designed not with the purpose of getting the state’s finances in order but as “an assault on Wisconsin’s working families and political payback against unions who didn’t support Gov. Walker.”
2. Pay for schemes that redirect state tax dollars to wealthy individuals and corporate interests that have been sources of campaign funding for Walker’s fellow Republicans and special-interest campaigns on their behalf. As Madison’s Democratic state Rep. Brett Hulsey notes, the governor and legislators aligned with him have over the past month given away special-interest favors to every lobby group that came asking, creating zero jobs in the process “but increasing the deficit by more than $100 million.”
Actually, Hulsey’s being conservative in his estimate of how much money Walker and his allies have misappropriated for political purposes.
One Wisconsin Now, the progressive watchdog group that has provided the closest monitoring of Walker’s budgetary gamesmanship, explains:
“Since his inauguration in early January, Walker has approved $140 million in new special-interest spending that includes:
“• $25 million for an economic development fund for job creation that still has $73 million due to a lack of job creation. Walker is creating a $25 million hole which will not create or retain jobs.
“• $48 million for private health savings accounts, which primarily benefit the wealthy. A study from the federal Governmental Accountability Office showed the average adjusted gross income of HSA participants was $139,000 and nearly half of HSA participants reported withdrawing nothing from their HSA, evidence that it is serving as a tax shelter for wealthy participants.
“• $67 million for a tax shift plan, so ill-conceived that at best the benefit provided to ‘job creators’ would be less than a dollar a day per new job, and may be as little as 30 cents a day.”
Full Opinion piece here...
I know the lot here probably doesn't watch a lot, if any of FOX News, but their coverage right now frankly, is hilarious.
Apparently OPA, the DNC and other Unions have shown up to fight the fight and now of course Obama is being blamed and he's being called upon to call off his watchdogs, they are also questioning the legality of their participation...
My question is how are these organizations and their activities any different than what the GOP and sitting Congress members activities with the Tea Party, am I missing something...