Representative Bob Kulp's Listening Session in Marshfield, Budget Shortfall
Thursday, January 29th, 2015 -- 10:54 AM
-Representative Bob Kulp was in our area on Monday, holding listening sessions for residents to voice their concerns.One resident at the session asked what Representative Kulp thought was the biggest problem plaguing Wisconsin. Representative Kulp took the time to talk about the projected budget shortfall.
He said, "We have some challenges on the financial side. Not as extreme as what it may be reported. We've all seen the $2.2 billion dollar budget deficit for this biennium. The way that's accounted for, of course, is just from the budget requests coming in from different committees; which have their wishlist and they say this is what we need this session. And it's very seldom that those budget requests are filled in their entirety and this is going to be no exception."
"If you look at what we would have spent and keep it flat lined, it's not nearly as bad as it was at $2.2 billion. But, putting that into perspective, $2.2 billion is a lot of money, but over a biennium, it's 3% of the overall money that the state takes in and spends. So, it's not like the wheels are falling off."
Representative Kulp also said he's going to try and make the state government work more efficiently by using Lean 6 Sigma Representatives put in place by Governor Walker. He hopes to give the Lean 6 representatives the tools to help cut down on state employees as that number had increased throughout the years.
Representative Kulp was in Granton, Marshfield and Abbotsford.
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