The Legislature's Big Gummint Move

Confirming the cynics.

Data from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau shows that the proposed Wisconsin state budget adds 1,777 jobs to the state government workforce as compared to the number of state jobs approved in the 2011-2013 budget. Baseline projections used for the current budget process show the Joint Finance Committee’s version of the budget, which was modified on the Assembly floor today, enacting a smaller increase in state government jobs funded through general tax revenue, segregated funds, and program revenues. Compared to Governor Scott Walker’s initial budget proposal, the JFC budget cuts 730 proposed government jobs...

Naturally, the Big Gummint folks have a convenient statistical lie available.

The LFB report prepared before full Assembly and Senate deliberations on the new state budget asserts that the 2013-2015 budget contains authorizations for 69,243 full-time equivalent (FTE) state government jobs. The baseline used for the budget was 69,263, meaning lawmakers can boast that they reduced state government jobs compared to the baseline...

But to us normal people, 69K is larger than 67.5K.

If the State was able to struggle through 2012 and 2013 with only SIXTY EIGHT THOUSAND EMPLOYEES, it should be able to make it with only SIXTY SEVEN THOUSAND EMPLOYEES in 14/15.

If it can't, the revolution has a long way to go.