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Evers Cutting Agency Budgets to Deal With Revenue Shortfall
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | April 29, 2020
From WisPolitics.com …
The Evers administration is immediately cutting executive branch agency budgets 5 percent in the current fiscal year to help deal with the looming state revenue loss due to COVID-19, according to an email DOA Secretary Joel Brennan sent to employees.
Brennan wrote last night that cuts to general purpose revenue appropriations in 2019-20 will provide an “additional cushion until the revenue picture for the biennium becomes clearer.”
In January, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau projected the state would finish 2019-20 with nearly $1.1 billion in the general fund on its way to completing the biennium with a surplus of $620.2 million.
But in mid-April, the Evers administration projected state revenues would drop by some $2 billion in the coming year, due to the pandemic. That estimate, in a letter to the Trump administration, didn’t include additional detail of how that lost revenue would impact each year of the 2019-21 budget.
Last week, the office of Joint Finance Co-chair John Nygren, R-Marinette, shared with WisPolitics.com its projection the state would receive about $3.5 billion from the federal government to deal with COVID-19. The projection includes money to help cover expenses ranging from health care costs to transit.
But that money comes with restrictions on how it can be used. Brennan referenced coming federal aid in the email, saying it can’t offset lost revenue.
Brennan wrote the administration would also continue steps that were implemented in recent weeks, including measures to:
*restrict state-sponsored out-of-state travel unless deemed to be essential for the COVID-19 response.
*freeze hiring except for positions deemed essential for continuing business functions.
*suspend raises, bonuses and other additional compensation for state employees through the Discretionary Merit Compensation Program and the Discretionary Equity and Retention Award Program for the remainder of the fiscal year.
The guv’s office didn’t immediately respond to a text message early this morning seeking additional comment.
In the email, Brennan wrote people are hurting, calling these “challenging days.”
“We do not take these or any other steps lightly and will do everything we can to limit ongoing impact on all the state employees who continue to provide great service, but we also know that waiting any longer to institute cost savings could have an even greater impact on our state’s workforce in the months to come,” Brennan wrote.
Read the email here.
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