MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Gov. Scott Walker’s top aide defended his $76 billion budget amid a bipartisan barrage of questions Tuesday from lawmakers who doubted some of the key assumptions in his two-year spending plan and signaled which proposals may be most in jeopardy.
Walker’s proposed shift to self-insurance for public workers, borrowing about half a billion dollars to pay for roads and requirements on K-12 schools to qualify for $508 million in new funding drew sharp questions from Republicans on the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee. The panel’s three straight days of agency budget briefings come before six days of public hearings over the next two weeks. The committee is expected to begin voting on making changes to the budget in early May.
Department of Administration Secretary Scott Neitzel defended Walker’s budget over nearly four hours of questioning. He said the spending plan invests in the state’s top priorities, noting that in addition to increasing funding for public schools it would cut tuition for University of Wisconsin students, require some food stamp recipients to be working or looking for a job to receive benefits, while also cutting property taxes.
Some of the most pointed questions from Republicans on the committee came over Walker’s plan to move to a self-insurance model where the state would pay, and assume the risk, of providing health insurance to about 250,000 state workers and family members. The state Group Insurance Board estimated the move could save $60 million over two years, money that Walker’s budget would direct toward K-12 schools and the University of Wisconsin.
Republicans questioned both whether the savings would be as high as estimated and why Walker tied that money to education. Not moving forward with self-insurance would require the Legislature to come up with $60 million elsewhere to replace that funding for schools and UW.
“I feel like you’re backing us into a corner on self-funding,” said Republican Rep. Mary Felzkowski, of Irma. And Republican Rep. John Nygren, co-chairman of the committee, called the self-insurance proposal and the use of the savings for education “one of our bigger concerns.”
Neitzel defended the self-insurance switch, saying that 46 other states have a full or partial self-insurance model, and that it makes “perfect and simple sense.” But he wouldn’t promise that every state employee could keep their current doctor under such a plan, saying a low percentage of them may have to change providers.
Republican leaders have said the self-insurance idea was unlikely to pass, but Walker has continued pushing for it.
Republican Sen. Luther Olsen, chairman of the Senate’s Education Committee, quizzed Neitzel over the intent of Walker tying additional money for K-12 schools to compliance with the Act 10 law that reduced costs of districts by requiring public workers to contribute more for their pensions and health insurance costs.
“I’m trying to understand the logic behind it,” Olsen said. “Are we sort of getting our nose in their business on how they manage their staff when they have managed the tools we have given them?”
The provision has caused confusion because the Act 10 law called for a 12.6 percent health insurance contribution only from those in the state health plan. Schools not in the plan did not have to require employees to pay more because they could achieve savings through provider changes or other actions.
State budget director Waylon Hurlburt said the intent was to ensure that employees are covering 12 percent of their overall health care costs. He said only a handful of the state’s 424 public school districts would be affected.
Nygren joined with other Republicans as well as Democrats on the committee in questioning Walker’s call to borrow about $500 million to pay for roads. Nygren and other Assembly GOP leaders want Walker to consider raising gas taxes or other transportation-related fees to pay for roads.
Nygren and others also questioned Walker’s state building and maintenance budget, which would be the smallest he’s ever proposed. Nygren said deferring maintenance needs of state buildings could end up costing more later.
“We are addressing the needs of the state within the context of our ability to pay and borrow,” Neitzel said.
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This version of the story corrects the dollar amount of state aid to schools in the second paragraph.
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