The Budget’s Done…
Oct 19th 2007ZacharyNews & Wisconsin Politics & Wisconsin State Budget
…but that doesn’t mean the budget debacle is over. The State Senate and Assembly still have to vote in favor of the agreement reached by Governor Jim Doyle and legislative leaders.
The package includes a $1 per pack increase in the cigarette tax and a $200 million transfer from the Patients Compensation Fund to balance the books and pay for new programs like the expansion of BadgerCare.
But it does not include some other revenue uppers that Doyle had originally proposed, including a tax on hospitals designed to generate more federal money for medical assistance or the tax on oil companies to pay for transportation projects.
Though leaders have signed onto the plan, there remains some question if the package will be approved by the Republican-controlled Assembly, where 22 members have signed a “no tax” pledges, or the Dem-controlled Senate, which gave up its universal health care plan Healthy Wisconsin and other priorities.
On the surface, it’s obvious both sides compromised; Doyle gave in on the oil and hospital taxes, and Republicans gave in on the cigarette tax. Without seeing the specific agreement reached, I can’t really say who came out on top, but I’m just glad both sides came to an agreement.
However, I will be very curious to see if the Autism Insurance Mandate was included in the budget deal, because I know the mandate was one of the items Republicans found to be “objectionable” in the budget previously submitted by Governor Doyle. I really hope common sense prevailed on the issue of the AIM, because there’s a good number of autistic individuals in Wisconsin who sure would benefit from the health insurance coverage the AIM would provide.
Edit: So it appears Governor Doyle caved in and dropped mandatory coverage of autism treatment by health insurance providers. Words just can’t adequately express how disappointed I am right now.
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