John Nygren:

We are actually at the expectations of the proposed budget two years ago. Some people will paint that as a negative. I would point out that meeting our expectations is actually a good thing. There’s other states in the country who are actually falling short of their revenue expectations. I think that shows the decisions we’ve made in the past were sound. Going forward I don’t think anything changes as far as our priorities in the budget process. K-12 education will continue to be our focus.

Classroom Teacher:

What’s that bottom number mean?

Frederica Freyberg:

To restore the K-12 cut, Republican legislators say they will make a single payment instead of a proposed double payment to the school Levy credit, freeing up about $106 million. As for whether the more than $300 million cuts to the UW can be reduced, the majority says it would like to, but…

Robin Vos:

Much of it was predicated on the fact that we believed that there would be additional revenue based on past practices. We now know that that additional revenue is not going to be there. Reducing those reductions that Governor Walker proposed is still a goal. If new revenues are not there, we want to focus on our top priority, which is why K-12 education, that’s why we want to put the majority of the money. If we’re able to find additional savings, part of that could go to the university, part could go to other areas. We don’t want anybody to walk away without thinking that our top priority is K-12 education.

Frederica Freyberg:

The big problem of funding for transportation also looms large, with Republican legislators reluctant to borrow $1.3 billion as proposed by the Governor.

Robin Vos:

We have talked about trying to find ways to look for increased revenues that would all go toward paying down debt. So we are not looking to increase highway spending or transit spending. We’re trying to say it’s fiscally a good idea to just borrow more money. We’d like to raise revenue, look at registration fees, things that would be a very reasonable increase to buy down debt.

Frederica Freyberg:

So putting together the state budget based on the Governor’s recommendations kicks into high gear now with revenue numbers on the table.

Late this week, the budget-writing Committee voted on party lines to pull state tax funding from Wisconsin state parks. The move would make them self-funded with increased camping, trail, admission and vehicle fees. Wisconsin would be the only state in the nation that relies solely on user fees for operation of its parks and recreation areas.