Government watch dogs not happy that state budget might be drafted in secret

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State government watch dogs are not happy to hear that a final legislative agreement on the new state budget might be drafted in secret.

Jay Heck of Common Cause says people will wonder what got promised to who.

Mike McCabe of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign says it makes taxpayers believe their representatives are hiding something and it just makes them more suspicious of all politicians.

Senate President Fred Risser said Thursday there might not be a need for a conference committee to work out differences between the Senate and Assembly versions of the budget.

Risser said it’s possible that leaders of both houses could meet informally by themselves to draft a final agreement on the two-year, $62 billion spending plan.

Such a gathering would not have to comply with the state Open Meetings Law and neither did the Democratic caucuses in the Assembly and Senate which spent days in closed meetings drafting their proposals.

In the Assembly, Democrats handed out $36 million in local projects to round up the 50 votes they needed.

Senate Democrats only approved one of those earmarks, but they added $16 million of their own.

That included another regional transit authority which would get the authority to impose its own sales tax, this one in Ashland and Bayfield counties.

The next public action on the budget is not planned until Tuesday at the earliest. Gov. Jim Doyle wants it approved by July 1.

Tags: state budget, wisconsin