MacIver News Minute: Wisconsin's Budget By-The-Numbers

The new state budget is in effect. A lot of people on both sides of the aisle claim it’s a conservative budget, but the numbers tell a different story. The last budget was $100 billion. Evers wanted 120 billion this time. It wound up at $114. That’s a 15% jump in spending. The biggest increase in at least 20 years. We started this budget with a $4.4 billion surplus. We’ll end it with just $700 million. And yet, this budget still borrows $3.2 billion. That’s four-and-a-half times more than in the last budget, and the highest level of borrowing since Jim Doyle was governor. Sure, you’re getting a $1.5 billion tax cut, but your healthcare costs are going up $2 billion, your property taxes are going up 3-quarters of a billion dollars, drivers fees are going up $150 million, and even camping fees are going up 6 million bucks. If all that adds up to a conservative budget, I shudder to think what a liberal budget would look like.