On May 11, Governor Scott Walker sent a letter to all state agencies providing directives for preparing their budget request for the 2019-21 biennial budget. It’s an effort to guide the state budget in achieving goals set by the administration.
Specifically, Walker set goals to attract and retain millenials and retirees, create better access to higher education, ensure affordability of higher education, combat drug addiction, build reliable transportation infrastructure, provide access to high speed internet, and reduce tax burdens.
In addition to the letter, Walker also provided a document of “Major Budget Policies” for the 2019-21 biennial budget. Among the policies identified in the document, Walker instructs agencies to assume zero growth in overall General Purpose Revenue and construct their budget requests based on that assumption.
Walker also tells agencies that funding requests for new appropriations should be limited to available revenue and only be applied to agencies’ highest priority needs.
Essentially, Walker is asking for lean budget requests from state agencies in an effort retain current spending levels or curb future spending increases.
In the document, Walker instructs agencies to submit their budget requests to the State Budget Office and Legislative Fiscal Bureau by Monday, September 17, 2018.