[img_assist|nid=55194|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=73]Tomorrow the state legislature begins an "extraordinary session" in an attempt to shove through their extremist budget with as little discussion as possible. Or for that matter, leaving time to be able to read the budget.
This is not so much a budget as it is a blueprint for extreme policies in the state. The JFC has stuck in an incredible array of policiy that has nothing to do with fiscal matters into the budget in the hope of changing the state's social climate no matter what the financial or political cost. A few examples?
- Exempting UW researchers from animal cruelty laws
- Stopping local governments from fixing their own roads and giving the money to their campaign contributors
- Brutalizing small Wisconsin craft breweries to please Miller/Coors (yes, even the McIver Institute for the criminally insane thinks this is wrong)
- Large changes to state school choice programs that will damage public education while promotiing less-regulated commercial education in the state
- Bringing Dog the Bounty Hunter to the state
- Gutting the cooperative that currently provides Internet to most of Wisconsin's libraries and many other agencies to force them to buy at a higher cost on the open market
- And of course, though it has not happened yet, the almost certain re-introduction of the stripping of collective bargaining rights from state employees.
With the Republicans in firm control of the entire state government, very little can be done about this other than calling your legislators to complain, continuing to protest, and most importantly, working to support the recall elections that can return sanity to the state government. The list above is only the first installment of what we can expect if there continue to be no checks and balances on the state legislature.