Gov. Jim Doyle said Monday state workers could potentially face layoffs because of the budget delay.

The state Legislature has not passed a budget, despite being more than three months past the July 1 deadline. Doyle spokesperson Rachel Allen said Doyle has to deal with the consequence of not having a budget, which will lead to cuts in state government.

“[Cuts will be] most notable to the department of corrections which will face a 370 million dollar hole if a budget is not passed. The only way to deal with these holes is to furlough state employees,” Allen said.

Mike Prentiss, spokesperson for state Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said the Republicans are disappointed Doyle is trying to scare the people of Wisconsin.

“If the governor really thinks all these bad things are going to happen and he really thinks we need to get a budget done immediately, he should stop flying around in a taxpayer funded state plane making partisan attacks on the Republicans,” Prentiss said. “[Doyle should] actually sit down and work on the budget instead of leaving that to his staff.”

Allen had no comment on potential jobs to be cut or a timetable for when they might occur.

“The governor’s position is that the state budget should have been done three months ago and it is the Legislature’s job to get a budget passed. This is something that needs to be dealt with right away,” Allen said.

Prentiss said the Democrats want to raise taxes by a billion dollars more than the Republicans think taxpayers can afford. He also said that all the state programs continue to operate at the level they were at in the previous year.

“We are disappointed that the governor seems more interested in playing these kinds of games instead of sitting down at the table with speaker Huebsch and [Robson and getting a budget done,” Prentiss said.