Dems Billings, Doyle and Shilling talked Wisconsin budget Monday in La Crosse

Gov. Walkers’ education cuts in past
make him look like a hero now, says Billings.

La Crosse area lawmakers argue that so much money has been cut from state programs in recent years, any new money going to those programs doesn’t help much.

State rep Jill Billings uses mental health funding for schools as an example. She says Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is trying to act like a hero in providing new money, to make up for severe cuts before now.

“These are services that schools have had to cut over the last six years,” Billings said, “because they haven’t had the funding that they’ve traditionally had from this state, so they’ve had to cut all these services.”

Billings spoke about budget plans in La Crosse on Monday with fellow Democrats Jennifer Shilling and Steve Doyle. 

Those three said funding increases, which may come to public schools in a new budget, are small compared to years of recent spending cuts.

Shilling says too much money has been cut from education during Walker’s time as governor, that the funding increases he suggests now won’t go very far.

“If someone stole $1,000 from me five years ago and today they’re giving me back $250, should I be grateful for that?” Billings asked. “What we are seeing is the governor has cut public schools by a billion of dollars. This is just a start but this is just replacing what has been cut.”

Shilling says jobs, health care and help for families should be high priorities in the next Wisconsin budget, while Doyle points to student debt as a serious problem for many families.

He says his two daughters, who recently graduated from college, worked at several jobs while attending school and still have five-figure student loan debt.  

Doyle also said more state funding for schools would keep local districts from having to conduct referendums to raise money.