Deficit Reduction Doesn’t Change Job Much for Local Lawmaker

With news that the state budget deficit is now $1 billion less than originally thought, Rep. Kathy Lohmer says lawmakers still have plenty of work ahead.

“I think it’s great that we have $33 billion instead of $32 billion,” said Lohmer, a Republican from Lake Elmo who represents parts of Woodbury in the state House. “I keep saying that $32 billion should be enough for five million people.”

The job of trimming the state’s health and human services budget, which has been on Lohmer’s radar, will remain difficult, she said, but “it’s nice to have a little cushion there.”

Despite the revised budget forecast, Lohmer reiterated that the state must continue to look for ways to save money. “The state government spends too much money,” she said.

Among the measures she has backed include the State Agency Value Initiative bill (HF 299), under which 50 percent of a state agency's unspent funds at the end of a biennium may be carried forward into the next biennium, according to a House summary of the bill. Those funds would then have to be spent on projects approved by a peer review panel within the agency. Under current law, operating money not spent at the end of a biennium lapses, and returns to the original fund, according to the summary.

Meanwhile, Lohmer has had an eye on transportation issues in the area, including the latest from the Gateway Corridor Commission and revisions to plans for a new bridge over the St. Croix River at Stillwater. Lohmer said she has been in talks with U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, as well as Wisconsin officials, to find a way to get the bridge built.

“We just need another Stillwater crossing,” she said, adding that people say a new bridge will never be built. “We have to make it happen.”