Budget Gridlock: Is it Time to Lower Our Expectations?

By George Lightbourn

Sitting in a pub on the South Island of New Zealand, it occurred to me that the more I watched cricket, the less I understood this enigmatic sport.  The fellow on the next stool, a true cricket fan, was fifteen minutes into his attempt to enlighten this poor American when it dawned on me; either you get the sport or you don’t.  Unfortunately, I don’t.

Our government is somewhat like that; either you get it or you don’t.  Almost all of us genuinely appreciate the credo, “of the people, by the people and for the people.”  But woe to anyone who might assume that we Americans blindly accept our government.  That is not our style.  We pour a good deal of energy into pondering, rooting out and documenting the shortcomings of government.  A foreigner reading our press would be hard-pressed to understand the innate faith we have in our government. 

However, that faith is not what it once was.  Here in the Wisconsin we have seen a tradition of accomplishment fading into history.  In its place we have seen the emergence of partisan gridlock.

Wisconsin is a state that has a proud tradition of trend-setting policy.  Wisconsin was the first state to institute an income tax, the state that first linked the brain power of its university with the problems of state government, the first state to pass a workers compensation law.  In more recent years Wisconsin has passed the nation’s most comprehensive school choice legislation, ended welfare and restored faith that state governments could indeed be laboratories for change.

It is against this background of accomplishment that we now find the Wisconsin Legislature unable to pass a budget.  As September becomes October, the state budget is now three months overdue.  Wisconsin is last in the nation.

The political insiders have all chosen sides as to who is responsible for the gridlock. The rhetoric is flying.  Finger pointing has been elevated to high art.

What the leadership in Madison seems not to understand is what their inaction is doing to the institution.  They apparently cannot see that the concern of the public goes well beyond the inability to pass this particular budget.  The public assumes that a budget will eventually emerge, it always does.  The concern is that the public is unsure that state government leaders have the capacity to get anything of significance accomplished. 

There is a long list of complex, troublesome issues facing Wisconsin including:

• Restoring the economic heft to Milwaukee, the state’s key economic engine,
• Getting control over runaway health care costs,
• Retooling the state’s tax structure to better reflect current economic realities,
• Getting urban kids back into the classroom so that they can do the economic heavy lifting when the baby boomers retire.

These are tough, tough issues.  How can we expect these issues to be addressed from an elected government that struggles with the basics of government 101 – passing a budget? 

To a degree, the gridlock on the budget is attributable to the fact that the decision makers in the Capitol look a lot like us; they hold strong beliefs that range from the far left to the far right.  But the public doesn’t just expect the people sent to Madison will simply look like us.  The public expects its leaders to see the big picture, to take action and to move Wisconsin forward. 

The sad fact is that the ranks of those who expect the leadership in Madison to move the state forward are diminishing.  In a nutshell, that is the danger of budget gridlock.  It serves to reinforce a growing skepticism that government can actually get things done.  The public is increasingly far too willing to expect and accept a lower standard of accomplishment from Madison.