Gov. Jim Doyle announced his next two-year state budget on February 17, 2009. This is a budget that starts with a $5.7 billion shortfall over the next two and a half years. He proposes to fill that shortfall by using federal stimulus funds, increasing taxes, reducing state services, and making state government more efficient.

The budget bill, AB 75, is a massive bill and will take some time to analyze, but some things are known. The bill will:

• Maintain eligibility standards and benefits for Medicaid, BadgerCare Plus and SeniorCare recipients while reducing expenditures through increased efficiency and effectiveness;
• Improve services to seniors and people with disabilities by continuing the statewide expansion of Family Care with full implementation by 2013.
  This is a slower timeline than previously projected;
• Provide funding to increase the number of long-term supports waiver slots for children with disabilities by 1,000 over four years;
• Create incentives for counties to provide treatment for mental illness to children and the elderly in the community instead of state institutions;
• Require insurers to provide health insurance coverage to dependents through 26 years of age;
• Increases state funding for vocational rehabilitation services in order to capture $4 of federal funding for every $1 of state funds spent;
• Provides $426 million to school districts to support existing programs, avoid significant teacher layoffs, and preserve educational quality;
• Increase funding for elderly and disabled transportation programs by 2 percent in calendar year 2010 and 3 percent in calendar year 2011 to maintain local transportation systems;
• Create a Quality Health Care Authority to assist long-term care consumers in finding qualified independent home care workers through creation of a registry, and provide training and recruitment programs to expand and improve the pool of qualified workers;
• Provide voluntary community relocation options for up to 140 residents of Southern Wisconsin Center, resulting in a decrease in the population and in state positions at the center;
• Implement an increase in the bed assessment for nursing homes and intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded (ICF-MRs). These revenues will be used to provide a 2 percent annual increase in provider rates and to support the costs of the Medicaid program;
• Provide $2.7 million to develop and implement a child care quality rating system to give families the tools to evaluate the quality of child care providers;
• Prohibit smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants, effective 60 days after the signing of the bill;
• Increases the tax on a pack of cigarettes and tobacco by $.75;
• Provide $1 million in fiscal year 2009-10 to meet increased demand for emergency assistance payments to low-income individuals and families affected by fire, flood, natural disaster, energy crisis, homelessness or impending homelessness.

DAWN will continue to follow this bill and provide updates as the budget process begins.

The bill now goes to the Joint Finance Committee for their consideration. They will hold public hearings around the state on the bill during the middle two weeks of March. DAWN will provide dates, locations and times for these when they become available.