Gov. Scott McCallum said Thursday he would not call a special legislative session until Republican and Democratic legislators come to a consensus on how to balance the budget and revive the faltering economy.

The state’s fiscal situation has deteriorated since Sept. 11, causing legislators and McCallum to question the recently passed budget.

Because McCallum is responsible for keeping Wisconsin’s budget in balance, some legislators are calling for an emergency session to alter the budget.

McCallum said it would be counterproductive to call a session until Republican and Democratic leaders can agree on a plan of action.

“Essentially calling a special session if there is no common ground would be wasting money, taxpayers’ money,” said Debbie Monterrey-Millett, press secretary for McCallum. “The governor is saying he wants people to be able to meet and agree on certain things before he calls a special session.”

McCallum said he would be meeting with Democratic and Republican legislators to discuss this issue; however, Mike Browne, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala, D-Madison, said Chvala had not received a request for a meeting with McCallum.

McCallum predicted the state’s revenue shortfall would be between $300 million and $1.3 billion for the 2001-2003 fiscal period.

Browne said the discrepancy between these numbers makes it difficult to devise a plan to deal with the situation.

“The only thing the governor has said as far as is somewhere between $300 million and $1.3 billion; we need a number to decide what we are going to do,” Browne said. “To put together a plan, we need to know what the size of the problem is.”

The state had projected a 5.6 percent increase in income tax revenue for this fiscal year. However, in July, August and September, revenue decreased 1.2 percent from the previous fiscal year, from $1.45 billion to $1.43 billion.

Sales-tax revenue was also expected to increase by 3.7 percent but was only up 1 percent for July, August and September.

Although legislators are concerned about these statistics, uncertainty about the predicted revenue shortfall prohibits legislators from acting until the figures are certain, Browne said.

“It’s a concern people are thinking about . . . but the first step is knowing what the size of any potential problem is, and we don’t have that data yet,” Browne said. “[Experts] don’t think they will have a good handle on the status of our economy until after Christmas.”