Doyle budget maneuver illegal?

Seriously….this is why I was never Gov. Jim Doyle’s biggest fan:

Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration lacks the legal authority to use a $127 million accounting trick to help cover a shortfall in state health programs for the poor, the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget and audit offices report.

The finding means the Democratic administration could have to seek lawmakers’ approval for the budget maneuver, which involves pushing off Medicaid payments to health care providers into the next budget to help cover a hole in the current one. That could pose problems, because the Legislature, now controlled by Democrats, isn’t scheduled to return until January, when Doyle leaves office.

Here’s the worst part of this story: even if the provider payments can be delayed, the state is still going to have to scrape together roughly $58 million in new state money (or face the prospect of making even larger cuts) in order to balance the Medicaid budget, according to a new memo released this week by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

It’s safe to say I won’t be shedding many tears once Gov. Jim Doyle leaves office, because while he’s done some good things as governor, situations like this are a perfect example of how he’s been too willing to take shortcuts – whether completely legal or not – when it comes to the Wisconsin state budget.

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16 thoughts on “Doyle budget maneuver illegal?

  1. This is the first I’ve heard of this so sorry if I’m ignorant. BUT! we’re talking about the 75,000+ people he promised healthcare oh yeah sure guys..NO PROBLEM c’mon in. and dumped them into BadgerCare? which, you know already had people it was supposed to be taking care of. Did we foresee any POSSIBLE problems there Gov? You cannot scream “Duh!” loud enough at that man.

    So yeah, Bye Bye Jimmy.
    Jim Doyle is- “Like Jim Doyle, Only Worse”. 🙂

  2. Worst.Governor.Ever.

    Said it before, I’ll say it again. The state of Wisconsin is going to be so much better off regardless of which candidate wins in November. The only bad thing is that Doyle won’t have to feel the stinging defeat he so deserves.

    Zach (and others) while you’ve made comments about not being a Doyle “fan” did vote for him or not? Because so long as you helped him get re-elected, you’re responsible.

    That’s one of the things I just can’t really comprehend – it’s just so completely illogical…to be so partisan as to vote for & support even the most corrupt, lying creep from your party over an honest & decent human being from the other. That sort of blind faith in either political party is just mind-boggling.

    BTW, looking forward to hearing what you think when the Obama Administration gives him a job.

  3. who was the honest and decent human being from the other? I personally didnt vote for doyle in his second term, once was enough for me.

    1. Mark Green was a decent guy. You’d be hard pressed to find a politician anywhere who gave more to help Africa – both from a legislative and actual hands-on help perspective. The biggest knock on him was that he just followed his party line – which in 2006 was a kiss of death.

      But to some extent, that’s neither here nor there. Whether you agree or disagree about Green, the fact remains, if you voted for Doyle in his second term, you have no business complaining about him. He showed who he was in his first term, his corruption and “rules don’t apply to me” attitude was no secret at that point. In my book, you don’t get credit for voting for someone who you think is the lesser of evils. By voting for someone, you’re endorsing them & what they stand for. Though I voted for GW Bush the first time, I refused to vote for his re-election because of what I learned about him during his first term. Did I think Kerry would be worse? Yup. But I felt (and still feel) I could not in good conscience give my vote to Bush – even if it might have put someone in the White House who I disagreed politically with even more.

      1. The second Bush election was difficult. I wanted to like Kerry and Edward. He struck me as a Bob Dole, a rich guy with no ideas that just got the nomination because he had been around the block. But the last straw was when I went to a rally and his wife introduced her self by saying “Mama T is in the house.”

    1. Cindy, other than the autism health insurance mandate (which I obviously supported for selfish reasons), I’ve never been a huge fan of Gov. Doyle.

  4. Doyle is living proof why you don’t govern to the right. The repubs will never supportyou no matter how many concessions you give them and you lose your base.

  5. Doyle is living proof why you don’t govern to the right. The repubs will never supportyou no matter how many concessions you give them and you lose your base.

    1. Govern to the right? That’s really what you think Doyle did? With total control of the legislature?

        1. Yup, how President Obama, and Jim Doyle governed while their party has held both respective houses of legislature is most certainly the Republicans fault.

  6. Another govt. program with huge cost overruns…imagine that. That’s a bipartisan problem if ever there was one.

    “Doyle is living proof why you don’t govern to the right. The repubs will never supportyou no matter how many concessions you give them and you lose your base.”

    “yes and that is what the President has been doing too…”

    Really, you guys? Really? I don’t even know where to begin with someone who thinks Obama is failing because he is catering to the Right.

    I don’t know if Doyle lost his base as I’m not a part of that set. The smartest decision that somebody or some people made was to push Doyle out the door. He’s damaged goods. It may be some time before we learn (if ever) who made the decision. Doyle probably agreed to leave only if he could do it on his own terms, like the laughable “I’m leaving after two terms because I believe in term limits.” Nobody on either side of the aisle believes that hooey.

    I suspect he will have parlayed his govt. “service” into a nice cushy job in the Obama Admin or the train-related private sector.

    1. I don’t believe he was pushed by anyone – if anything that’d probably only make him more determined. Seems to me, he saw the writing on the wall. He was going to get trounced because:

      A. The pendulum is swinging back the other way, much like it did in ’94 and ’06, and this time, establishment Democrats are fighting up stream.
      B. He’s a crapweasel whose slimeball antics are finally coming to light.
      C. Republicans hate him and would be highly motivated to kick is butt out.
      D. Many Democrats don’t care for him and while many of them (like many Republicans) would just hold their nose & vote for their party guy anyway, plenty will stay home or skip over his box on the ballot.
      E. And most of all, he knows first hand just how much he’s screwed over the state and with the accounting tricks house of cards beginning to come down, he has no interest in actually solving the problems that he created or made worse.

      As for a job in the Obama Admin, I really have to think that’s not going to happen. You’d think if there were the case, he’d already have been offered a position & left (like Thompson did in ’01). Then again, maybe Doyle just hates his Lt. Gov. too much to turn over the reigns to her before his term is over.

  7. First thing is that while Obama is not as successful as I would like him to be, or he could be, I would not consider him a failure. He could be more successful if not for his pollyannaish attempts at being bipartisan. I think the repubs have proven that not only can they not govern, that they have no interest in anything but regaining control. So i feel very comfortable with saying that his problems have been governing to the right.

    As for a cushy Obama admin job, whats wrong with that? it worked quiyte well for Tommy.

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