The State Building Commission approved a $145 million prison expansion plan earlier this month that the commission's secretary said is the most "expansive" prison building program in Wisconsin's history.
Funding for the program will come from the issuance of general obligation bonds. Frank Hoadley, the state's capital finance director, said the bonds for the prisons would be added to the state's regular GO bond issues on an as-needed basis.
The biennial budget that was approved by the Legislature July 3 for fiscal years 1992-93, which began July 1, included a total of about $619 million of GO bonding authority and $757 million of new revenue bonding authority.
The revenue bonding authority involves a $188.9 million transportation revenue bond issue that is to be sold competitively today. The remaining $568.4 million of bonds is slated for the state's clean water revolving loan program.
Bob Brandherm, the commission's secretary, said the $145 million prison program represented a compromise between the Legislature, which had backed a $142 million plan, and Gov. Tommy Thompson, who had proposed a $266 million eight-year program. Mr. Brandherm said that while the program adopted by the commission would run through 1995, both sides agreed to revisit the issue of prison expansion in the future.
