Governor Walker was supposed to present his budget for the 2011-2013 budget on Tuesday. The legislature gave him a pass, letting him get his homework in a week late.
What does the governor have in mind? Why has he been in such a panic to get the badly misnamed budget repair bill passed before he has to present his budget? Why haven't the Fitzgeralds been speaking about the upcoming budget?
Governor Walker has not been leaking any of his proposals to the press, so it's very likely he has nothing but bad news for local governments. Once upon a time, the state promised to pay 2/3 of all school costs. It's a nice promise that most school districts have not seen fulfilled in any reliable sense, no matter whether it was Tommy! or Jim Doyle running the show. Now, for a while, part of the reason the money went missing was that the state was committing to pay 2/3 of all school costs, so lower cost districts or high property value districts, didn't get as good a deal as high-cost or poor districts.
The state pays over six billion per year in school aid and over two billion in other local shared revenue. Those two items are over 25% of the budget and the only parts that the governor won't have to take direct responsibility for cutting. The Summary of All Funds Appropriations Requests by Agency shows what was asked late last year.
He's not going to cut roadbuilding. He might be able to cut health, but it will be a long hard fight because of the federal involvement. Since he refuses to consider tax increases, his only options -- other than the $300 million in pay cuts of state employees -- are trivial other than making local governments pay.
Of the $3.6 billion being cut for the biennium, $300 million are borne by the employees. There might be another $300 million in other state spending cuts. The other $3 billion are very likely to come out of local revenue. Some folks pass the buck, Scott Walker appears to be passing the bill.
The reason for the union busting bill is that Walker will then say that he has given local government the tools to cut their spending when he cuts their revenue. Shared sacrifice? None that I can see.