Budget Decisions Will Likely Wait Until After May’s Revenue Estimates Arrive

Republican state lawmakers say they will likely wait until new revenue estimates are released in May before they make any big decisions on the next budget.

The entire budget is based on projections of how much state taxes will generate over the next few years. The hope among many lawmakers is that a re-estimate next month will project more money coming in for the state. Republican John Nygren is the Assembly co-Chair of the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee: “We don’t want to make too many decisions before we know, that because it might affect where we’re going.”

That said, the wish list for majority Republicans could be getting expensive. Some want to reduce the structural deficit and reduce borrowing, some want to increase state aid for schools, and some want a bigger income tax cut.

Budget analyst Jon Peacock with the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families says the danger is that legislators lock in those long-term costs even though any revenue bump is only short term: “It happens just about every time, that the state ends the fiscal year with a substantial surplus.”

Dale Knapp with the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance says even if new estimates project more revenue, it probably won’t be enough to pay for everything: “Now we’re four, five years past the recession and it’s rather unlikely, I guess, that we’re going to see a big upward revision.”

The call on whether to redo the estimates falls to Bob Lang, director of the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Lang says he will not commit to that until he sees how April’s income tax collection comes in.