Budgets When Discussing the Budgets

¶ … Budgets When discussing the budgets of Wisconsin and California there are differences that one would expect considering the difference in size, population, and overall concerns. However, the two budgets share numerous congruencies. The areas of congruency include those of education, including higher education, healthcare, and safety concerns regarding land, individuals, and structures. Wisconsin allocates $700 million in increased school equalization aid (Wisconsin Government [WG], 2006). On the other hand, California's budget states that over 10 billion dollars is being allocated for kindergarten through 12th grade including higher education facilities.

Included with these allocations are funds for overcrowded schools, charter schools, career technical education, the University of California, California State University, and California Community Colleges. In addition, local school districts will provide $4.0 billion as their match for the new funds, and $3.6 billion in remaining, previously authorized general obligation bonds will be fully apportioned to help meet the needs of local districts. (California Government [CG], 2006) As stated above education is a strong component of both budgets. This includes continuing education.

California's Governor has championed the restoration of programs necessary for a well-rounded education the arts, music, career technical education, and physical education. Under the Administration's proposal, schools would receive significant one-time and ongoing resources to purchase equipment and hire staff to ensure all students have access to these programs. Furthermore, the Governor believes that true educational reform and improved academic achievement result from leadership and ingenuity at the local level.

That is why the May Revision proposes a total of $2.3 billion in new discretionary spending above levels contained in the 2005-06 state budgets. These resources are provided as cost-of-living adjustments, deficit reduction funding and revenue limit equalization funding. These funds will provide local educators with the flexible resources to construct specific solutions to help their students succeed. (CG, 2006) For California Community Colleges (CCC), the May Revision provides $1.5 million on a matching basis with the colleges for a multi-year nursing faculty stipend incentive program.

These funds will leverage $3 million annually to ensure sufficient faculty to successfully fulfill the $14 million investment in nursing enrollments funded from Proposition 98, plus the expansion resulting from the infusion of Workforce Investment Act funds and matching contributions totaling $90 million over five years announced last year. In addition, $500,000 is provided on a one-time basis to CCC to expand and establish Student Clinical Placement Registries in all regions of the state and to establish the online CCC Faculty Registry.

Student Clinical Placement Registries have been initiated in three regions of the state and have identified underutilized clinical placement slots available for students. Therefore, expansion of these slots to other regions will assist all segments in connecting students with clinical opportunities necessary to complete nursing degree programs. The online Faculty Registry will provide an opportunity for prospective instructors to specify their qualifications and availability to a wide audience and for CCC nursing program administrators to conveniently search and match faculty to areas of need.

(CG, 2006) Wisconsin has tweaked their budget to more specific towards the children and their parents in their budget regarding healthcare. The healthcare budget includes implement a childcare quality rating system to evaluate childcare providers on indicators related to the quality of childcare programming. Implement a tiered reimbursement system under the Wisconsin Shares childcare subsidy program to reward childcare providers who provide higher quality childcare and reallocate funding to support childcare quality improvement activities.

Encourage more school districts to implement school breakfast programs by providing a 50% increase in the state's reimbursement rate for school breakfasts. (WG, 2006) The California budget includes $400 million to implement a broad strategy to ensure that California is ready for public health emergencies and is properly equipped to handle them. This funding will enable the state to increase patient care capacity (also known as "surge capacity") to achieve the levels recommended by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

In the past, California has responded to "moderate" local or regional public health emergencies, such as a fire, flood, explosion, or earthquake, with up to 10,000 casualties over a limited period. Measured against federal HRSA benchmarks, California needs to increase response capacity in some areas. Emergency planning experts agree that the most critical element in preparing for surge needs is the development of hospital and community surge plans, and the training and recurring exercise of those plans.

Given that the development of surge plans is a fundamental element in the protection of residents of California, it is appropriate that the State provide leadership and assistance in ensuring that these plans and subsequent exercises and training are completed. The May Revision includes nearly $14.5 million to resource positions in hospitals throughout the state, dedicated to surge capacity planning, training and exercises.

The May Revision provides $4.0 million for the rapid development of state guidance on the specific licensing flexibility, liability protection, and reimbursement that will be provided to health facilities, licensed professionals, and volunteers during an emergency response effort. (CG, 2006) Lastly, the area of transportation was also common between the two budgets. California stated that an allocation of $19.9 billion in new general obligation bonds for transportation and air quality projects would occur, including traffic congestion relief, public transportation, port.