Notes from the West Wing
By
State Representative Garey Bies
State of the State
Good Evening from the State Capitol in Madison. Tonight was the annual State of the State Address by Governor Doyle. As you can imagine, this address was the bleakest of any during the last 7 years of his administration.
It is indeed troubled times the state is facing. The condition of the economy and state budget is dire. But I remain confident that working together, we will elevate the state back to prosperity.
The key to getting the state back on track is getting the hard-working people of Wisconsin back on the job. We need stimulate the state economy to create jobs. We need to balance the budget and reduce unnecessary spending so that we can once again have a state government that lives within its means. Tonight the governor said that “what isn’t needed will be cut.” This is exactly right. We need to make sure we do not balance the budget on the taxpayers’ back. It is never a good time to raise taxes and when people are struggling to pay rent or their mortgage, the last thing they need are more taxes.
We need to make sure we are responsible with the federal stimulus money. This stimulus money is not for pork projects. We need to use this money to address critical needs in the state’s budget, not prop up structural deficiencies. This stimulus money needs to be used to create new jobs in a state and local economy that has lost entirely too many. I think getting people back to work must be the cornerstone of our efforts.
The federal stimulus money will be welcome and very useful to Wisconsin. But we need to make sure that it is spent correctly and that we know where it is spent. This week, legislation was introduced to the Assembly, which I co-authored, establishing a new Joint Legislative Committee that will have oversight of the federal stimulus money. This Committee, which will consist of 6 Democrats and 4 Republicans, will hold public hearings and issue reports on legislation that involves the spending of federal stimulus monies. There needs to be legislative oversight of the federal stimulus money, it is after all, taxpayer dollars.
Wisconsin like the rest of the country is facing a difficult road ahead. But the challenges we face we can overcome. We can, and we will act to set our great state on the road to recovery.
As always, if you would like to contact me, I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.wisconsin.gov or by telephone, toll-free at 1-888-482-0001. You can also visit my website at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm01/news/.