The 114-day state budget standoff in Madison may be coming to an end.
Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, announced an agreement with legislative leaders Friday that he said provides important funding for education, health care and economic growth, while still remaining fiscally responsible.
“This has been a difficult process for all of us, but today Democrats and Republicans begin anew,” Doyle said in a written statement.
The Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled Assembly still must vote on the proposal.
The budget has sat in limbo for nearly nine months with the split Legislature trying to reconcile its differences, leaving UW System officials making financial decisions for the 2007-2008 academic year on shaky ground.
System officials have been concerned that the partisan wrangling might result in a lack of funding and, therefore, steep tuition hikes and major program cuts in the future.
Friday’s agreement came within hours of a monthly meeting of UW System chancellors, in which the top administrators were to discuss their options for dealing with budget concerns, said David Giroux, the System’s executive director of communications.
“We are going to be discussing reasonable steps to avoid that kind of crisis,” he said Thursday. “Even those reasonable steps are not going to be popular steps.”
Without a budget, there would have been “no way to do this without hurting students,” Giroux said, adding the System was going to look at possibly cutting funding for student and other services, including library and information technology resources.
In spite of its tardiness, the budget agreement is a victory in the following areas, according to the governor’s office:
Education
If passed, the budget would deliver $32 million in financial aid to help “talented students who have earned their way,” as Doyle put it, into System schools.
It also would invest $12 million to provide free college tuition to all Wisconsin veterans.
Health care
Though Democrats’ ambitious health care plan was a sticking point in the Legislature; Doyle said the new budget would provide health care to “at least 98 percent of Wisconsin citizens” through BadgerCare Plus.
The budget would also increase taxes on cigarettes by $1 to curb smoking and provide the state with additional revenue.
Economic opportunity
The budget would allocate $15 million in 2008 for renewable energy and to fight global warming.
It also would offer tax credits to a number of industries.
Taxes
The budget would create a $65 million surplus and send $55 million into what the governor called a “Rainy Day Fund.”
It would also provide “targeted tax cuts” through deductions on health care, childcare and college and has “tight property tax limits.”
– Nathaniel Shuda contributed to this article.
