A better way to budget

There has to be a better way. State government continues to be more expensive to operate. The most recent state budget signed into law by Governor Scott Walker spends $73.3 million. That is more than 11% higher than the last state budget signed by his predecessor Jim Doyle. It seems that every time a new budget is adopted, the costs go up. The money goes to different priorities depending on who is in office, but the constant is that the cost to taxpayers continues to rise. A couple lawmakers in Madison have an idea to change that, and their idea makes sense. Reps. Rob Hutton and Chris Kapenga are floating legislation that would change the way state budgets are built in Wisconsin. These lawmakers want all state agencies to not only request an increase in their budgets, as is the case now, but also to submit budget requests equal to their current funding, and a separate budget proposal calling for a five percent cut to their agency. Because right now, lawmakers assume whatever the state agency’s funding was in the last budget, that is the starting point for next year’s budget. How can state spending ever go down under this scenario? We can’t afford to assume that every dollar spent in the past was money well spent. Adopting this change would force a review of which programs are working, and which are not. And that is exactly what taxpayers need if we ever hope to see the state budget get smaller.