Wisconsin budget is missing many numbers

[Scuba]

Squat Wanker and his Koch connection have published the sneakiest budget ever.

http://uppitywis.org/blogarticle/wisconsin-budget-missing-many-numbers

The Legislature is given a 519 page “summary” of the budget to consider but nowhere can you find numbers to compare this year’s budget requests for particular programs to dollars actually spent under the previous budget. There are no numbers clearly showing the increases or decreases in each individual program. There are no numbers showing what was accomplished by the spending.

Most of the budget numbers compare the Governor’s request for new spending to “the base year doubled”. For anyone looking for real numbers this creates a problem because “the base year doubled” is just a place to start - an imaginary number. It is what you would get if you took the budgeted or expected spending in the current state fiscal year -- which ends on June 30th -- and doubled that number.

Budget analysts assume an estimate of what was budgeted last year is a reasonable starting place. Details given to legislators are changes to the base – not to how much was actually spent for specific programs. Without the real numbers it is difficult to answer the question: Can this program be better run with fewer dollars? What is really happening at the specific program level is often buried and nearly impossible for legislators or the public to dig out.

For example, let’s look at the Department of Health Services (DHS). According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau staff, DHS buried in the $7 billion Medicaid base-funding request is a nearly 3% increase in rates paid to Medicaid HMOs. Buried in the $663 million cost to continue is a 2% increase to HMOs to compensate them for a new federal excise tax. Also buried in the cost to continue is a 2% increase for HMOs to “ensure an adequate network”. A total of 7% increase in money is going to HMOs. HMOs already receive a 14% skim off all state payments to cover their administrative costs. For every dollar the HMO pays out they keep 14 cents. With this budget they receive another seven cents on each dollar.

Is anyone suprised Squatty is hiding another give-away to big insurance in his latest attempt to rob from the poor? If the private sector is so much more efficient than Medicare/Medicaid, why do they need a 50% boost in their already-too-high administrative fees?