While UW-Madison students may feel the impact of impending cuts in the proposed state budget in their tuition bills, the fiscally meager budget may affect them in another area: the job market.
Students looking for summer jobs in their local communities may find themselves in a similar situation as that of UW-Madison sophomore Erin Baugus, who, due to a probable elimination of lifeguard services at some Madison area beaches, is reconsidering her summer options.
\The problem with lowering the amount of lifeguards is that it affects the safety of everyone who comes to the beach, not just the lifeguards themselves,"" Baugus said.
But a decline in public services and employment is an expected dilemma for the whole state. If the budget is enacted in its current form, Dane County alone would be forced to reduce its operating cost by $5.5 million. The result, according to Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk's chief of staff, Topf Wells, is that every service offered by the county will have to be carefully examined.
""There will be far less hirings and severe limitations to what we do as a county,"" Wells said. ""With a reduction of that magnitude, we have to look also at our existing personnel.""
Wells added that even standard Wisconsin summertime projects, ideal for student-workers, would need to be assessed.
""Major projects like road construction and road maintenance now have to be dropped or greatly reduced,"" he said.
""A main reason why the budget cuts affect counties to such an extent is that the shared revenue from the state is the primary source of nonrestrictive money that counties have to work with,"" Wells said.
""Federal grants and other types of funding can only be used for what the money is allocated for,"" he said. ""So $5.5 million is huge.""
But Dane County will obviously not be the only area affected. Joseph Polasek, director for the Bureau of Management and Budget under the Department of Natural Resources, said that while the full impact of the cuts remains to be evaluated, he expects decreases in positions for limited-time employees as well as services offered by state parks.
""It won't be a major blow, but there will be a reduction in the number of jobs,"" Polasek said.
Graduates looking for something more permanent than a summer job may also find themselves out of luck in the public sector.
""I know there have been good, quality entry-level positions in the areas of human services, the parks department, service and information-based jobs,"" Wells said. ""But once again those areas are going to have be looked at if a major reduction like this is passed.""
Wells said the only secure areas in which jobs are not in jeopardy are those that cannot be affected by the budget, such as public health and safety, which typically receive top priority.
Despite an unpredictable national economy and an ominous state deficit, it may not be all bad news for job-seeking students, according to Terry Ludeman, chief labor economist for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.
""There are some signs of an economic turnaround in Wisconsin,"" Ludeman said. ""If tourism increases and the trends continue, there should be plenty of jobs available for students in the private sector.""
As for the long-term effects that the current situation might create, Ludeman said that right now it is too hard to say what really could happen to the future availability of public jobs.
""It's hard to tell what significance this may have,"" he said. ""The key is that you have to look at the budget cuts as more of a county and local government issue. With less revenue to operate with, it will be obvious that there will be less hirings.""
Which is something that students like Erin Baugus may not want to hear.
