May 5, 2006 – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

7 from GOP reject spending limit

Senators reject state spending limits, defeating 3-year effort for amendment

By STEVEN WALTERS
swalters@journalsentinel.com

Madison - A three-year push in the Legislature to amend the Wisconsin Constitution to control government spending died late Thursday.

On a 20-12 vote, the Senate killed a constitutional amendment that would have tied state spending to inflation and population growth - the latest of about 10 proposals that Republicans, who control the Legislature, floated over the past week.

The vote also discarded a similar amendment that the Assembly passed 50-48 last week.

Nonetheless, attempts to limit government spending have made progress in the Capitol. The Assembly and Senate votes marked the first time the full Legislature seriously considered constitutional limits on about $42 billion a year in government spending - $20 billion by state government and $22 billion by local governments.

Democrats were unified against any constitutional change, and several Republicans joined them Thursday, saying fiscal constraints do not belong in the 158-year-old constitution.

Twelve of the 19 Republican senators voted for tough limits on state spending. But seven Republicans joined 13 Democrats in opposing that constitutional amendment. Those seven were Ron Brown of Eau Claire, Robert Cowles of Green Bay, Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls, Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau, Dan Kapanke of La Crosse, Luther Olsen of Berlin, and Carol Roessler of Oshkosh.

Later, on a 21-11 vote, the Senate rejected rigid controls on both state and local governments.

Last week, the Assembly killed a move to put new limits on local governments, opting instead for a spending cap on the state only.

Noting that the latest national study ranked Wisconsin with the seventh-highest tax burden in the nation, backers of the amendmentssaid that load is crushing middle-class taxpayers and forcing wealthy retirees to flee Wisconsin.

"The only way to deal with this problem is in the state constitution," said Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), who ousted longtime Republican Sen. Mary Panzer two years ago on a promise to draft a proposal to limit government spending.

Grothman said constitutional limits are needed because legislators for decades have been unable to control state spending on their own.

"The one group we have been unable to put limits on is ourselves," he said. "We are so scared to death we may not be able to spend all we want."

Republican Sen. Mary Lazich of New Berlin said that voters would have to approve a constitutional amendment and then would have the option of exceeding those limits in future referendums. "Let (voters) speak," Lazich said.

If both houses approved it this session, an amendment would not have become law until it had been adopted again by the Legislature in the next two-year session, which convenes in January, and approved in a statewide referendum.

Preserving services

Democratic Sen. Julie Lassa of Stevens Point said that limiting state spending would turn Wisconsin into "the new Mississippi of the North" because it would cut state aid for public schools and hurt economic development.

Wisconsin citizens want good public services and low taxes, Lassa said, adding that "You can't have it both ways."

Harsdorf said: "It is not the job of the state constitution to control taxes. It's the job of elected officials."

Sen. Judy Robson (D-Beloit) said Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle was able to control property taxes through vetoes of the budget that the Legislature passed last year - an example of how government spending can be curbed. The average property tax bill on a median-valued home went up less than 1% last year.

Doyle aide Dan Leistikow praised the Senate for "showing a little bit more common sense than the Assembly, and not jumping off the cliff and hurting the University of Wisconsin System" and shifting more of the property tax burden to homeowners.

Three years ago, a few Assembly Republicans, led by Rep. Frank Lasee of Bellevue, pushed spending limits on state and local government like those adopted in Colorado in the 1990s. That push ended in a special legislative session on the issue in 2004, another election year, although no votes were taken on any spending limits then.

If re-elected in November, Lasee said, he would continue the push for constitutional limits on government spending next year. He said votes in both houses of the Legislature during this session showed that controls are becoming more popular with taxpayers.

Another Assembly sponsor of spending limits, Rep. Jeff Wood (R-Chippewa Falls), said the votes in the Legislature over the last week were historic.

"We have changed the debate in the state of Wisconsin to how - rather than if - we need to get Wisconsin out of the top-10 taxed states," Wood said in a statement.