Wisconsin state budget (2011-2012)

Note: This article was last updated in 2012. Click here for more recent information on state budgets and finances.

Proposed Budget

Governor Scott Walker delayed introducing his proposed budget bill until addressing the estimated $3.1 billion budget shortfall for the previous fiscal year.

Gov. Walker introduced his proposed 2011-2013 budget on March 1, 2011. The proposed budget did not raise taxes or fees. It reduced school and local government funding from the state by $1.5 billion.

Capital Budget

On March 14, 2011, Gov. Walker recommended a capital budget of $1.1 billion for building projects over the next two years, down 28.8 percent from FY 2011's capital budget.

Education Funding

Walker's first proposed budget cut $792.2 million, or 7.1 percent, in funding for K-12 schools over the biennium ending June 2013, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

Public Employee Unions and the Budget Bill

Initially the legislative language regarding collective bargaining and employee health insurance and pension fund contributions waspart of a budget bill, but it was taken out of the budget bill and used to create a separate bill, Wisconsin Act 10. The governor signed the bill into law on March 11, 2011.

Vote on the Healthcare and Collective Bargaining Provisions

On March 9, 2011, the Wisconsin State Senate moved to separate the collective bargaining language from the fiscal budget legislation language, because a quorum was not needed for a non-budgetary bill, allowing the Senate to vote on the collective bargaining language.

Gov. Walker signed the bill into law on March 11, 2011.

Recall Election

Over 900,000 valid signatures to recall Gov. Walker were collected. The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board voted unanimously for the recall election. It set the primary on May 8, 2012 and the general election for June 5, 2012.

Exit polls following the April 2012 presidential primary showed Walker had strong support from Republican voters. Republican primary voters overwhelmingly — by about 8 in 10 — approved of Walker’s job as governor.

A poll from Marquette University Law School showed Walker with a slight advantage over two of his possible Democratic challengers. Measured against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, whom Walker defeated for governor in 2010, Walker had a two point lead of 47 percent to 45 percent. Against former Dane County executive Kathleen Falk, Walker had a 4-point lead of 49 percent to 45 percent.

Court Challenges

On March 30, 2012, Wisconsin Federal District Court Judge William Conley ruled that some portions of Wisconsin’s Act 10 violated the equal protection rights of state employee unions. The judge found that the law’s prohibition of automatic dues collecting and the requirement that the affected unions hold annual recertification elections was unconstitutional because police and firefighter unions were exempt from those portions of the law.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi struck down the bill limiting collective bargaining rights for public employees. Sumi ruled the March 9, 2011 meeting of the state Legislature's Joint Committee of Conference violated the Wisconsin Open Records Law and that the budget bill "consequently has no force or effect."

The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard arguments in June 2011 to determine if Sumi had the authority to block Walker's budget bill.

On June 14, 2011 the state Supreme Court reinstated Gov. Walker's plan that impacted collective bargaining for public workers. The court ruled 4-3 to overturn the lower court's decision. The court found a committee of lawmakers was not subject to the state's open meetings law, and thus did not violate that law when they hastily approved the measure.