State agencies are requesting an additional $3.94 billion in state and federal money – a 6.2% increase – over the next two years to fund priorities such as health care and education.
But with the state already facing a massive deficit in the 2011-’13 budget, Governor-elect Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled Legislature are unlikely to fill many of those requests. The report on the $67.43 billion in requests over two years – most by agencies in Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration -was released Thursday by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
The biggest share of the proposed increases would go to the state Department of Health Services for programs such as Medicaid health care for the poor – spending that Walker and other Republicans have pledged to rein in.