But so far, Doyle's largest accomplishment appears to be expanding and restructuring Medicaid health care programs such as BadgerCare Plus for low-income families and Family Care for elderly and disabled residents. Those expansions have come at a price, however, exacerbated by the recession and the resulting stress on health care programs. During Doyle's time in office, enrollment in Medicaid programs has grown by 325,000 participants to more than 1 million state residents. That has forced Doyle and lawmakers to order program managers to find $625 million in savings over the next two years to hold down costs. Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle and his wife served as Peace Corps Volunteers in Tunisia in the 1960's.
Doyle's legacy: Health care and tough budgets
Doyle's legacy: Health care and tough budgets
By JASON STEIN
608-252-6129
jstein@madison.com
In 2007, as some fellow Democrats were clamoring for a $15 billion remake of the state's health care system, Gov. Jim Doyle set his sights much lower.
Working with lawmakers from both parties, Doyle instead sought to expand existing health programs started by his Republican predecessors.
The resulting changes weren't as splashy - or expensive - as universal health care. But they mean an estimated 98 percent of state citizens now have access to health insurance, the second-highest rate in the country and up from 95 percent previously.
"If (Doyle) had thrown out the whole system and tried to rewrite the whole thing, he would have had what we have at the national level: gridlock," said Mark Bugher, former administration secretary under then-GOP Gov. Tommy Thompson. "His expansion of health care has got to be a major legacy for him."
Doyle, who announced last week he will not seek a third term, still has a year and a half to complete his legacy. But since taking office in 2003, Doyle built a reputation as a leader who usually failed to inspire but often managed to win.
Contending with two recessions and an often hostile Legislature, Doyle didn't amass the signature achievements and bronze legacy of Thompson, his former rival. But while straining to stay just ahead of fiscal disaster, Doyle made incremental changes that will influence the state for years.
In his first term, Doyle faced a $3.2 billion budget shortfall and a Republican-controlled Legislature that he fought with constantly.
This year, Doyle got to work for the first time with a Democratic-controlled Legislature, but within the straightjacket of a nearly $7 billion budget shortfall. Plus, more than 130,000 jobs in Wisconsin have been wiped out over the past two years, leaving the state with fewer jobs today than it averaged the year Doyle took office.
Thompson, presiding over a largely booming economy for 3 1/2 terms, had the money to carry out the welfare reform and massive expansions of prisons and state support for public schools that served as his legacy.
Steve Bablitch, who served in both Doyle's and Thompson's cabinets, said he sees Doyle as a leader who took the state through some of its most difficult years in generations.
"He has managed the state fiscally in probably the toughest time since the Great Depression," Bablitch said. "It's a hallmark of what he's been able to accomplish."
But Christian Schneider, a conservative commentator with the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, said Doyle relied too heavily on accounting tricks and borrowing to balance state budgets, contributing to the massive shortfall this year and likely another in the next budget.
"It seems like he spent a lot of time patching holes," Schneider said, calling Doyle's tenure "forgettable."
Five-time winner
UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin noted that Doyle's approval rating in voter polls hovered at around 45 percent through his first term and reached 55 percent following his 2006 re-election, but is now at 31 percent following last year's economic meltdown.
"He never enjoyed wild popularity as governor," Franklin said.
But Doyle still won five statewide elections - three for attorney general and two for governor, making him the state's longest-serving Democratic chief executive. He also still managed to achieve many of the policy goals he set for himself, usually by working with at least some Republican lawmakers.
In announcing his decision last week, Doyle also made clear he'd push for new legislation on climate change and school financing in the coming months.
But so far, Doyle's largest accomplishment appears to be expanding and restructuring Medicaid health care programs such as BadgerCare Plus for low-income families and Family Care for elderly and disabled residents.
Those expansions have come at a price, however, exacerbated by the recession and the resulting stress on health care programs. During Doyle's time in office, enrollment in Medicaid programs has grown by 325,000 participants to more than 1 million state residents. That has forced Doyle and lawmakers to order program managers to find $625 million in savings over the next two years to hold down costs.
Cutting state spending
In other spending cuts, Doyle and lawmakers have trimmed state aid to schools and furloughed state workers.
This year, he and lawmakers passed tax and fee hikes that will add up to some $3 billion by 2011, though part of those taxes were offset by federal money. Doyle has touted the fact that he didn't allow any across-the-board income or sales tax increases.
Mary Bell, president of the teachers union Wisconsin Education Association Council, credited Doyle with protecting schools from even greater harm during difficult state budgets. Doyle, for instance, outraged Republican lawmakers in July 2005 by using his powerful veto pen to transfer $330 million from the state's road fund to schools. "The impact on schools without his leadership would have been much worse," Bell said.
But Rep. Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, said the tax increases Doyle supported worsened the state's already troubled economy.
"That will be a very difficult legacy," he said.
Huebsch, who as Assembly speaker lost control of that body in last year's landslide elections for Democrats, joked that both he and Doyle "chose bad times to be leaders."
Huebsch often fundamentally disagreed with the governor, notably during a prolonged budget standoff in 2007.
But, "in all the dealings I had with him, I never doubted that he had the best interests of the people of Wisconsin in mind," Huebsch said. "I could never take that away from him."
