State Spending: I Thought We Had a Budget Problem?

With all of the gnashing of teeth about the state's deficit for the next biannual budget, you would think the state's budget had been slashed to the bone. Guess what? Not exactly.

The spending in this year's budget ranges from the ridiculous to the sublime. Here are a few examples just from those items that the legislature's Joint Finance Committee have reviewed:

$2.5 million for two Hmong Cultural Centers
$0.5 million for the Kenosha Public Museum's Civil War Exhibit
$3.525 million for development of the Governor Thompson State Park
$3.25 million for shelving for the State Historical Society
$775 million for various UW System Building Projects (some of this might be necessary, but $775 million?)
$1.63 million for the Youth Apprenticeship Program
A tourism impact study

This is from a cursory review of wispolitics' notes of the proceedings. Of course, this is just the tip of the really deep iceberg.

We need tax limits (GOP, how you squandered the opportunity to enact TABOR!). Maybe that would put the brakes on some of this. However, we also need to elect legislators who recognize that the state cannot afford everything everyone wants.

Which of the preceding expenditures fulfill the state's primary responsibilities (prison/court system, highways, primary and secondary education)? Perhaps the legislature should start with those programs, adequately fund them and then decide what is left.