MADISON . . . Legislation that would stop Governor Doyle from utilizing interfund transfers that shift dollars from one fiscal year to another unless clearly directed to by the Legislature passed a key legislative committee today, according to state Senator Alberta Darling (R-River Hills).
“Past budgetary actions with regard to the MA Trust Fund not only violated the spirit of the statutes, it violated the letter of the law,” said Darling. “It’s time to stop DOA from retransfer monies it had already transferred as directed by the legislature by law.”
At Wednesday’s meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance, Audit Bureau Director Jan Mueller and Fiscal Bureau Director Bob Lang reported the cause and effect of the Department of Administration's (DOA) action to avoid reporting over a $50 million deficit in DOA's Annual Fiscal Report. By splitting the available funds between two fiscal years, DOA claimed a $4.1 million balance - when there actually is over a $50 million hole.
Senate Bill 446 explicitly makes illegal the actions taken by the Department of Administration last week, and will prevent this abuse from occurring in the future. She says more fiscal responsibility and above-board accounting techniques are needed to ensure Wisconsin doesn’t incur invisible budget holes or deficit spend.
“This bill will prevent the current or any future administration from "cooking the books" by requiring the transfer, when no date is directly specified by the legislature, to be made within the fiscal year in which the law takes effect,” said Darling.
Darling anticipates this initiative will receive strong legislative support, and she looks forward to working with her colleagues to make sure it passes with strong bipartisan support.
