MADISON - The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee will try for a second day to reach an agreement on school aid and transportation funding in the next state budget. Majority Republicans met privately for five hours yesterday, but could not finalize a plan on either issue. Assembly co-chairman Robin Vos said he was confident a final package could be agreed upon this morning, for a committee vote this afternoon.
Governor Scott Walker wants to cut almost $850-million in state school aid. Some of Walker’s fellow Republicans on the finance panel want a smaller reduction. Democrats and school officials want to soften the blow by allocating some of the $636-million in additional tax revenues that were projected after the budget came out. But a lot of that money is already committed to other things.
Yesterday the finance panel voted unanimously to use $235-million of it to re-pay the state’s fund for medical malpractice court settlements. That’s after the State Supreme Court said politicians acted illegally in raiding that fund in 2007. On transportation, some Republicans are balking at the governor’s plan to put sales tax money from new vehicle purchases into the transportation fund instead of the state’s general fund. About 35-million dollars would be diverted in the next two years.
