The perverse stinginess of the Wisconsin GOP
A couple of weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Education warned Wisconsin that we stand to lose $2.3 billion in federal funds for schools because the Republican-led Legislature’s budget so badly underfunds education that we fail to meet the minimum federal requirements for investing in kids.
The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated last week the state needs to spend about $430 million more on K-12 education to qualify for the federal funds.
So this week the GOP came up with a fix — they plan to borrow money to cover health care programs and rural broadband, instead of spending available tax dollars. Borrowing will cost more money in interest payments in the long run, but it will make overall spending look smaller. That way, their paltry schools budget will appear bigger in the context of their stingy overall budget, and they might make the federal standard for spending a big enough portion of the budget on schools.
Viola! If their plan works, they can push through a lean budget and fund programs we could have afforded now through long-term borrowing, even though we have billions of aid on offer from the federal government and $4.4 billion more than expected coming in state revenue over the next three years. It’s the exact opposite of the miracle of the loaves and fishes; presented with a bounty, the Republicans have figured out a way to create scarcity.
Read more: https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2021/06/17/the-perverse-stinginess-of-the-wisconsin-gop/
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