MADISON VOICES: Taylor criticizes priorities in state budget

Carousel BayrdWisconsin Governor Scott Walker proposed his bi-annual budget for 2015-17 this past February.  It is now before the Joint Finance Committee, a unique legislative committee comprised of both State Representatives and State Senators. The JFC holds public hearings across the state and develops its own budget proposal that is then forwarded to the full State Assembly and Senate.

Two Dane County legislators serve on the Joint Finance Committee, Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) and Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison).  I spoke with Taylor a few weeks ago about the state budget.

LISTEN: Carousel Bayrd interviews Rep. Chris Taylor on WORT's A Public Affair

Taylor began the conversation with a strong attack.

“I want to just first say that this is a budget not for the people of the state of Wisconsin, really. … This is not a budget that creates opportunities for the people of this state, this is not a budget that gives our kids a chance to succeed. This is a budget about privatizing public assets and public infrastructure and things that we all want for our state.”

She finds the cuts to public schools and K-to-12 public education are the most egregious, calling them, “totally and completely devastating”, especially building on the record setting public schools cuts of $1.6 billion in Gov. Walker’s last budget. The budget not only proposes program cuts to public schools but also pairs those cuts with a statewide expansion of publically funded vouchers for private schools.

“It started 20 years ago in Milwaukee, to help low income and kids of color. Now we know, 20 years later, did this investment in private schools—which were not accountable, they don’t even have to have accredited teachers—has this helped improve the graduation rates or the academic performance of African American kids? No. It’s been a colossal failure,” Taylor said. “And now, what this governor wants to do, is expand this failed experiment, statewide, so that taxpayers now are going to pay to send kids to private school.  At the same time he is cutting our public school kids.  The vast majority of the kids in the state of Wisconsin, 96 percent, are in some kind of public school.

And yet he’s taking money and giving it to private schools.”

When the voucher program began in 1990, it was challenged in court for violating the state’s public purpose doctrine that requires that public funds be spent on public purposes only.  The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the program in a 4 - 3 decision in 1992. However, given all the data from the past 20 years showing the vouchers to do not improve student’s academic success, in additional to the change in the program funding over the decades, Taylor wondered whether it might be time to challenge the constitutionality of the program again.

“As a legislator, I have a constitutional obligation to maintain a strong system of public schools. That was so important to us in the state of Wisconsin, we put it in our state constitution. That’s how important it was. And not every state did that. So that really goes to show you how seriously we took our commitment to public education.  And I think at this point, when we’re flat funding or decreasing funding for our public schools, you really have to question, are we really maintaining a system of quality pubic education? And yet, at the same time we’re gutting, we’re expanding taxpayer subsidies to private schools,” she said. “I think it’s time to challenge this again.”

Rep. Taylor also objected to the proposed $300 million cuts to the University of Wisconsin System, and to UW-Madison in particular, explaining that the reductions could be even higher than projected.

“The cut is actually going to be much greater than $300 million. That’s just the GPR, the general purpose revenue. There were other programs that were cut.  So actually for UW Madison, the cut in this first year, they’re estimating to be $91 million,” she said. “That has a statewide impact, an absolute statewide impact. There are billions of federal dollars that just UW Madison gets in federal funds.  And they’re spending all that in our economy, not just in Dane County, but in our state.”

Taylor called the cuts devastating to the entire state economy and a backwards approach to job creation and economic funding. 

“You see even Republican governors (in other states) investing in their public university systems. Why are they doing that? Because they know this 21st century economy depends on research and innovation,” Taylor said.  “This university, and the whole system in general, is such the economic driver of our state.  When you look at ‘Where the jobs being created right now, the jobs of today but also the jobs of tomorrow?’ They’re right here in Dane County.  And a lot of the innovation and research that is leading to the creation of these jobs is coming right here from UW-Madison, an economic powerhouse.”

The state can afford to fund the University System and public education, but Walker is choosing not to, Taylor said, dismissing the argument that these cuts are necessary to balance the budget.  

“It’s not that the state doesn’t have any money. I want to dispel that myth. It’s that our priorities—which tend to be progressive priorities in investing in our state, investing in public education, making sure our environment is protected, making sure we’re addressing the needs of middle income and low income individuals and families—aren’t always reflected in these budgets that we’ve seen from the governor.  We have a $70 billion budget. It’s not that there’s not money for public education.  So we have to not accept that argument. There is money.”

As a member of the Joint Finance Committee, Taylor hopes that changes will be made to the proposed budget, including collaboration to improve funding to education. “I’m going to meet probably with every member of joint finance, I’m in that process right now, to see what can we do here, how do we not cut our public education infrastructure which is the future of our state. If we don’t have a strong public education system, we’re not going to have this strong economy, we’re not going to have the strong jobs,” she said.  “I will be working diligently, with my Republican colleagues, to try to find revenue, look at ways that we can just prioritize.”

Taylor insisted that changes are needed. “This is not acceptable, this is not a budget for the people of the state of Wisconsin,” she said. “This budget is really contrary to what we are as a state. And it’s not the kind of life, this does not create the quality of life that people in the state of Wisconsin really want, and really should demand from their policy makers.”

The JFC has completed its public hearings across the state and will begin deliberations this month. 

--Carousel Bayrd is Vice Chair of the Dane County Board and hosts "A Public Affair" Tuesdays at noon on WORT (89.9 FM). She lives in Madison with her husband and two children.