Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle presented his 2007-09 Executive Budget to the State Legislature on Tuesday (2/13) this week. The Executive Budget presents each agency’s budget request, accompanied by the Governor’s recommendations and initiatives. Within the Dept. of Administration’s budget, the Governor recommended spending $2 million annually for local government comprehensive planning grants, and $801,600 each year for land information grants. The money for these grants comes from Wisconsin Land Information Program (WLIP) fees collected in each county for real property related transactions.
The $2 million to be allocated each year for comprehensive planning continues an annual expenditure amount that has been in place for the past four years. The $800,000 amount will be allocated to counties for education and training purposes and to meet the base budget requirements of selected counties.
The Governor’s budget did not contain other details on expenditures related to the WLIP or GIS. The budget document is now in the hands of the legislature, and can be altered significantly before it is returned to the Governor for signing. Ideally, the new budget should be in place for the beginning of the new fiscal year on July 1.