PRINT ADS

There’s no reason why a state budget can’t be finished by the end of this week.

Assembly Republicans took a huge step toward resolving the impasse by agreeing to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget for public schools. The budget is 2 1/2 months past due because Republicans who control the Assembly and Democrats who control the state Senate aren’t close to passing a compromise measure.

Adopting Doyle’s education budget wasn’t easy for Republicans to do. The governor’s package spends more than the Republicans wanted and includes money for a class-size reduction initiative that most Republicans oppose. Republicans gave up all their policy proposals, including their plan to spend more money on private school vouchers.

The only major issue that still divides Doyle and the Republicans is the Qualified Economic Offer, which effectively caps teacher compensation raises at 4 percent per year. Doyle has proposed eliminating the QEO, which has been in place since 1994, but it’s hard to see how he can repeal the QEO without busting the budget. Budget realities, if nothing else, will keep the QEO intact.

Since the Democrats have clearly prevailed on education spending, it’s now time to set aside Healthy Wisconsin, the Democrats’ universal health care plan. While the plan is a bold attempt to rescue health care from bloated private-sector bureaucracies and establish decent health care as a basic human right, the reality is that Healthy Wisconsin won’t pass during this year’s budget cycle. Republicans will stall the budget process into 2008 to keep Healthy Wisconsin from becoming law.

State Senate Democrats were right to include Healthy Wisconsin in the budget, but the question now isn’t whether Healthy Wisconsin will become law in 2007, but how long Healthy Wisconsin will keep a state budget from getting passed.

Time is running out. Unless the a budget is passed by Sept. 28, school aids will be frozen at last year’s levels, and Tomah School District taxpayers will be stuck with the $1.2 million shortfall. A late budget also throws city, village and township budgets out of whack. The debate on Healthy Wisconsin is a necessary one, but it’s one that can be put off until next month. Wisconsin needs a budget now.