An Overview of the 2009-11 State Budget
by Jon Peacock
Balancing the 2011-13 budget was an exceptionally challenging task.  The Governor and Legislature had to strike a balance between spending priorities and painful economic realities caused by the recession.While many worrisome cuts were made, ultimately a lot of key programs and services were protected thanks to welcome help from the federal government and targeted state revenue increases.
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What's Past is Prologue...for Future Budget Difficulties
by Jon Peacock
The state faces “structural imbalance” for the 2011-13 biennium will be $2.05 billion.  That figure represents the amount of revenue growth that will be needed in the next biennium simply to maintain 2010-11 spending levels, without any adjustments for inflation or caseload growth.This article explores the challenge we face next time around due to such factors as the repeated use of short term fixes for long-term spending commitments.
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Federal Fiscal Relief Helps Balance the Budget
by Jon Peacock
Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the federal government provided significant sums to state and local governments, allowing them to avoid even more painful cuts to critical services and programs.
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Revenue Uppers Help Close Budget Shortfall
by Jon Peacock
The biennial budget bill makes changes that generate a little over $2 billion in revenue. The changes range from an increase in the cigarette tax to changes in the treatment of capital gains. Still, these revenue uppers by themselves closed only a fraction of the budget gap.

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Health Care Highlights of the 2009-11 Budget
by Jon Peacock
Wisconsin's crucial health care safety net programs were preserved, but at a high cost. Substantial cuts in Medicaid reimbursement and agency administration are cause for concern, as is the question of future funding to sustain these programs.
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Early Care and Education in the 2009-11 Budget
by Dave Edie
Despite facing the largest budget deficit in state history, the Wisconsin legislature crafted a state budget for 2009-2011 that makes wise investments in the state’s young children. The final budget protects many early care and education programs that support infants, toddlers, and their families, including the Wisconsin Shares child care subsidy program, 4-year-old Kindergarten, early intervention services for infants and toddlers, and home visiting.

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Supports for Low-Income Families
by Jon Peacock
Notwithstanding the state’s severe budget challenges, policymakers were able to protect key safety net programs and even make some modest improvements in programs serving low-income families. This article examines the budget provisions relating to the Wisconsin Works (W-2) program, child support, and tax credits for low-income families. 

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Don't forget to check out the new WCCF blog at wiskids.blogspot.com!

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Did you know that you can access all sorts of useful data about the well-being of Wisconsin's children and families via the WisKids Count portion of our website? There are a lot of tools available for county-by-county comparisons and generating tables, charts, etc. Check it out.

And did you know that WCCF publishes e-newsletters on a variety of specific issues, including health care, early education, economic support, juvenile justice and other youth issues, and budget and tax matters? Well, we do. If you are interested in any of these issues, please consider signing up for one or more of these email bulletins. You can also sign up via that page for action alerts and for one or more of our campaigns. Once you see the impressive volume of work we are doing on the issues that matter to you, you will no doubt feel moved to help support this work by making a donation to WCCF.

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