Group: State Budget Shifts From Education To Medicaid - Ashland Current

An analysis by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance says the 2011-13 Wisconsin state budget shifts priority from education to human services, particularly Medicaid. The share of 2011-13 state general fund spending going to K-12 schools and the University of Wisconsin System combined is 40.8 percent, down from 45.3 percent in 2009-11, the report says. In contrast, Medicaid’s spending share will rise from 8.4 percent to 13.6 percent. The group's study, "Home to Roost? The 2011-13 State Budget," also notes that the state budget closes a 15-year structural gap and replaces it with a small surplus. The end of federal stimulus funding partly explains the spending shift, the group says. Federal Medicaid funding for Wisconsin will be about $1 billion less in 2011-13 than in 2009-11. As a result, general fund tax dollars are needed just to maintain current spending, the alliance says. General fund spending at the Department of Health Services—the state’s Medicaid agency—is $1.4 billion (32.5 percent) more than 2010-11 base spending.