The idea that Gov. Scott Walker and his Republican rubber-stamp Legislature are fiscally responsible is an absolute joke.
Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has put off a debt payment for the second year in a row — this one totaling $101 million — which will cost taxpayers about $2.3 million in interest.
The state was supposed to retire about $132 million in debt on May 1, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Instead it reduced that amount by $101 million, which will help the state end the current biennium on June 30, 2017, in the black.
However, it will also increase interest on the debt payments by $2.27 million over the next eight years, in addition to pushing principal payments into future budget cycles.
Not surprisingly, Gov. Walker’s spokesperson Laurel Patrick tried to paint Gov. Walker as showing “prudent fiscal management,” while conveniently neglecting to explain how putting Wisconsin’s taxpayers on the hook for an extra $2.27 million in interest payments made more fiscal sense than making the debt payment on time and in full.
Then again, if I were Laurel Patrick I’d have a hard time explaining that too, since it makes absolutely no sense.
There is one reason you would choose not to make a final debt payment to get it off the books, and instead decide to pay it off over 8 years with interest.
YOU DON’T HAVE THE CASH. Tax season revenues must have been awful.
I know Patrick wasn’t hired for her economic mind, but you gotta do better than that excuse.
Precisely.
Hopefully we’ll find out just how bad the situation is, but I know that’s wishful thinking.
I’m not claiming to know the real reason, but there are instances where this would make good economic sense. If, for example the funds can be invested in something that is expected to generate a higher return than the interest they have to pay back, it would be worth it to delay the payment.
That is true. But this is the same governor who is trying to blow a bunch of money expanding freeways with no concern about the future costs to maintain them.
And some groups have already questioned if there is a need for some of these freeway expansions.
Plus Walker voted an audit of the DOT (not a sign of one concerned about good financial practices).
> “Walker
voted[vetoed] an audit of the DOT”I thought we didn’t have any debt. I thought that was the point of the last 6 or so years.
All those people have been hurt by cutscutscuts and we still have debt? How can that be?
It almost makes me think they were hurting people for fun.
As stated, Walker’s decision to defer payment will cost Wisconsin taxpayers $2.3 Million in interest.
His excuse is “…concerns about the Obama economy.”
The reality as noted by Dave Sweifel is “The U.S. has added 9 million jobs, the jobless rate has dropped to 5 percent ( the historical median), the number of long-term unemployed has dropped by 614,000, 15 million fewer people without health care coverage, and the annual budget deficit has been narrowed.”
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/dave_zweifel/plain-talk-just-how-dumb-does-scott-walker-think-we/article_bf6f57a6-47de-5017-a135-c782eb10dccc.html
I echo Dave Sweifel’s cry to Walker, “HDDYTWA.” or “How dumb do you think we are?”
A failed recall, a second term, a new supreme court justice who showed her true colors repeatedly during the campaign and was still elected.
That’s how dumb he thinks we are. He still doesn’t have as much to fear as he should.
Unfortunately, that is the reality. We can keep pretending to be shocked by these fiscal shell games, and get pissed about Voter ID & gerrymandering…however the reality is that the DPW has been extremely ineffective in capitalizing during elections and conveying messages about the positive alternative their candidates represent. I really don’t know how this state gets turned around at this point.
Point well taken, GuyFromWI, but we cannot allow ourselves to fall into a malaise, chronic depression, or a state of surrender. Remember,we are the party of the people, not the servants of special interests or slaves to a false and inhuman ideology. To put it in moral terms, “we are our brother’s keeper.”
It’s okay to take a brief political timeout to refresh the spirit and mind, but remember the words of Winston Churchill in England’s darkest days of WWII: “Never give up,never, never.”