Spending would increase 1% under Walker budget

Gov. Scott Walker's proposed budget would increase overall spending by 1% over two years rather than reduce it as the administration had said earlier this month.

That would still be the tightest lid on spending of state and federal money in at least two decades, observers said.

A report released Monday by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau showed that under Walker's bill the state would spend a proposed $64.1 billion in state and federal dollars over two years after factoring in existing spending that would be transferred to new quasi-public authorities such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That would amount to $609.5 million more in spending over the 2011-'13 budget.

When the Republican governor unveiled his budget proposal on March 1, his administration said it would cut overall spending by more than $4 billion, or more than 6%. But those amounts included spending cuts that would simply amount to transferring certain funding for entities like UW-Madison and a new agency to replace the Department of Commerce off the state's books.