http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/scottwalker-dream-279h.jpgIncreased spending by Walker administration pushes deficit to $3 billion.

MADISON - State agency funding requests made by the Walker administration are pushing the state’s projected structural deficit to nearly $3 billion, a number that is likely to go even higher when funding requests from the Department of Public Instruction and the Department of Transportation are released next month.

“At the rate things are going under this administration Wisconsin could face a structural deficit significantly higher than the one Governor Walker claims to have fixed when he took office, except that this one will be entirely of his and the Republicans’ making,” said State Senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay).

Of even greater concern is Governor Walker’s plan to continue to expand his statewide voucher school program which could costs taxpayers and additional $1.9 billion and place even more stress on state funding for public schools.

“Between the corporate tax breaks, increased spending, the growing deficit in the Transportation Fund and plans to expand voucher schools this Governor and Republican-led legislature has put our state on a course that is financially unsustainable.”

At the same time, the Governor’s refusal to accept federal funding to strengthen BadgerCare has cost the state not only hundreds of millions of dollars that could help alleviate the crisis, but the creation of potentially 10,000 new jobs as well. Refusal to increase the minimum wage to help workers get above the poverty line is not only keeping more money from being spent in local economies but is also making it difficult to reduce the number of Wisconsin residents who rely on government assistance to survive.

“The regressive policies of this administration are coming back to haunt us with what could be a deficit that tops $4 billion, the largest structural deficit in state history at a time when we are dead last in job growth in the Midwest. This is a recipe for economic disaster and it will hit low and middle income families the hardest.”