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Amendments expected to kill Green Bay choice expansion, retain broadband funds [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel](Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) June 15--MADISON -- A private school voucher program won't expand to Green Bay and the state will not turn down nearly $40 million in federal money for expanding broadband access in rural areas, under budget agreements poised to come before the state Assembly Wednesday afternoon. So far, Republican leaders have still not released the amendment with those and other proposed tweaks to Gov. Scott Walker's budget bill, including a change aimed at preserving federal money for public transit. Dozens of police patrol the Capitol on this rainy morning, but so far there are relatively few protesters. Earlier this month, the Legislature's budget committee included a provision in the state budget proposal that would have brought the voucher program -- now available only in Milwaukee -- to Racine and Green Bay. But Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee, said the Assembly will take Green Bay out of the bill when it takes up the budget later Wednesday. He said he supported bringing school choice to Green Bay, but there is not consensus on the plan among Republicans who control the Legislature. The plan to expand the program to Racine remains in place in the bill, which also must be passed by the Senate and signed by Walker. Jim Bender, a lobbyist for School Choice Wisconsin, said he was disappointed about the decision on the Green Bay voucher plan but stressed his group was pleased with other changes in the budget for school choice. "We were hoping for lightning to strike," Bender said of the Green Bay program. "It's looking like that's not going to happen." The Joint Finance Committee earlier this month voted to put restrictions on the WiscNet broadband network and to force the state to return a nearly $40 million federal grant to expand broadband access in rural Wisconsin. The moves sparked discontent from rural legislators and raised concerns from the University of Wisconsin System, as well as school districts and public libraries that rely on that network. Under a budget amendment the Assembly is expected to adopt later Wednesday the state could keep the federal money and WiscNet will continue to run for at least two years in the same way it has in the past, Vos said. Any expansions to the network would have to be approved by the committee. Telecommunications companies and the university system would likely present a plan for any expansions in July, Vos said. The state could no longer be involved with WiscNet after July 1, 2013, unless the Joint Finance Committee approved a plan for the network before then. Vos said he expected all parties to reach consensus over the next two years on how to proceed. Vos called the deal a compromise. "No one is pleased, but everyone is satisfied," Vos said. Amid protests and high security, GOP lawmakers worked behind closed doors Tuesday on a state budget deal, but failed to get one in time to start debate on the bill that night. Republican leaders in the Assembly said they needed another day to work on changes to the budget so they could come back Wednesday for what is expected to be a marathon debate. "Us in the Assembly here, we like to talk," Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon) said. The two-year, $66 billion budget would close a $3 billion shortfall, in part by making deep cuts to schools and local governments. It would put tight limits on property taxes and leave the state with an estimated $300 million surplus two years from now, putting the state's long-term finances into balance for the first time in more than a decade. Other changes to the budget bill were expected, but Republicans, who control the Legislature, did not finish or release them Tuesday evening. But after a last-second save for Republicans from the state Supreme Court, GOP lawmakers no longer need to amend the budget to sharply limit collective bargaining for public workers. The Legislature passed that union measure in March after a 62-hour debate in the Assembly, but a Dane County judge blocked it from becoming law because she found a legislative committee violated the state's open meetings law in advancing it to the Senate. The Supreme Court overruled the judge Tuesday, eliminating the need for lawmakers to pass the measure again. Jeff Fitzgerald and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) both said that a number of changes would still be made to the budget, including one that would ensure that $47 million in federal aid for local transit systems won't be lost because of changes to transit workers' bargaining rights. The Legislature is meeting in "extraordinary session," which will allow the Assembly to immediately send the budget to the Senate once the Assembly votes on it. In regular session, Democrats could delay the bill before it gets to the Senate. The state budget was proposed by Walker and then tweaked over several weeks by the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee. One of those changes now raising concerns from some Republican lawmakers would prohibit counties and municipalities from using their own crews to perform some public works jobs costing more than $100,000. They would have to turn to private contractors, potentially driving up their costs and making it harder to keep on staff highway workers who also drive snowplows in the winter. The provision has led some local government officials to say that if it is enacted, they will stop performing maintenance work on state highways unless they get more money to perform that work. The heads of public works departments have urged lawmakers to reverse course, saying it will inhibit the ability of local governments to save money by collaborating with each other. "Ambiguities within the proposed language leave one with the impression that current and future collaboration, consolidation and cooperation efforts could be seriously curtailed and impacted," the letter says. "Does, for example, the proposed prohibition foreclose the opportunity of adjacent communities to collaboratively pave a road that forms the boundary between the two? Or, does this prevent an entity such as the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District from providing wastewater treatment services for its member communities?" The letter was signed by 14 local officials from around the state, including Jeffrey Mantes, Milwaukee's public works commissioner. ___ To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com. Copyright (c) 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail [email protected], or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544) |