Gov. Jim Doyle will address the looming budget problems facing the state today. Among the issues he is likely to discuss are shared revenue and funding and tuition for the UW System.
While the public will not know what course of action Doyle will take until his speech at 7 p.m. today, there is some speculation that Doyle might cut shared revenue--or state aid to local governments--by 7 percent. Sharyn Wisniewski, the executive assistant to Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, said Falk's office would closely watch any possible cuts to shared revenue.
\Our [Dane] county gets about $5.4 million of shared revenue, which are basically unrestricted funds that we can use for a lot of basic services to our citizens,"" she said.
These funds include providing services to children, elderly citizens and those with disabilities, Wisniewski said.
Chris Lato, the communications director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said he was skeptical about Doyle's campaign promises regarding the budget.
""We've been looking at what he proposed when he was running for governor, and now what he is introducing as governor and we're finding a lot of discrepancies,"" he said.
Lato mentioned several areas of concern with Doyle's campaign promises, including shared revenue and caps on tuition and teachers' salaries.
While some politicians criticize the procedures Doyle might implement, state Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, defended Doyle's possible stance on shared revenues.
""It's a great deal less than the complete elimination, the 100 percent cut that former Governor McCallum proposed,"" he said.
Tuition expenses have also been called into question, with Lato bringing up the possibility Doyle might not implement a cap on tuition. Black, however, pointed out that this might be inevitable.
""Given the very large deficit there are going to be major cuts in state services, including the university,"" he said.
While there is much debate over what course of action the governor should pursue, those on both ends of the political spectrum agree that solving the deficit will not be easy.
""When you have folks on both sides of the aisle saying that this is a really extraordinary problem we face, I think it's certainly something unprecedented in Wisconsin,"" Lato said.
Black agreed this might be the worst economic crisis Wisconsin has grappled with in recent history.
With all the problems Wisconsin faces, Wisniewski said she hoped for the best.
""We don't know at this point what the governor will propose ... At this point we're optimistic,"" she said.
