Joint Finance: First, Smoke a Joint. Then Do Finance!

You really don't want to read this piece. That's OK--the guy who wrote it really didn't want to sit through 1/3rd of the Memorial Day weekend writing it.

Samples:

...No matter, we are going to roll up our sleeves, sharpen our pencils, and find a way to fix this additional $1.6 billion dollar deficit. $6.6 billion if you are a stickler for facts or accounting.

- $138,000.00 in savings over two years from the Medigap Helpline. Oh wait, the "savings" is lapsed into the general fund for other spending. Not a cut.

- $3 million in savings from the increased spending on the film production tax credit was going to receive. Hold it. That is a reduction in the proposed increase, not a cut.

Approved 50 new state-funded positions for indigent legal defense Because the current fiscal situation is so dire, the committee votes to delay starting these positions until 2011. Now there is some common sense. Good old fashioned credit card spending. Buy now, pay later. Will only cost us $4.4 million next budget. We don't have to worry about that for another 2 whole years. That is an eternity in politics

...The committee voted to support Gov. Doyle's new money for the WI Institute for Discovery
Gov. Doyle proposed and Joint Finance agreed to spend $8.2 million in general tax revenues on a new program to fund the WI Institute for Discovery (WID). Not sure how we continue to create new government programs at a time when we are not only flat broke but up to our eyeballs in debt? These new positions at the Institute aren't exactly "entry level" jobs, either. Seven new faculty members will be hired at the WID in 2009-2010, with average salary and benefits packages of $164,000.00 each. And don't forget the 14 "support" staff that the faculty just couldn't live or work without. Salary and benefits for each of these support staff will average over $128,000.00. Where does a taxpayer sign up for a job like that?

Oh, there's plenty more!!

MORE property taxes from new State-mandated benefits--health insurance for gay lovers and not-gay live-in lovers. MORE laws hitting a flea with a 155mm howitzer. MORE property taxes resulting from State mandates (garbage tax increase...)

Resume smoking your joint, finance committee.