After meeting eight times without a compromise, members of the bipartisan conference committee have done little to merge the two Houses’ plans to repair the state’s $1.1 billion budget deficit.

Committee members have been criticized for not creating a fiscal compromise earlier, and Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, said Thursday the committee should meet six days a week for a minimum of eight hours a day until the state has a plan to solve the budget deficit.

In a letter to committee chairs, Sen. Chuck Chvala, D-Madison, and Rep. Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha, Black said the committee should meet until the job is done.

“We should put in a full day everyday until we reach agreement. The continuing deficit causes serious problems. Our standing with the national financial markets had been undermined, and our bond rating has fallen,” Black said in the letter. “Many who depend on the outcome of the budget-deficit legislation, including local governments, the university and school districts, are left in limbo by the current impasse.”

But some, like Steve Baas, spokesman for Jensen, say that working longer hours isn’t the solution.

“I don’t think the problem is that they aren’t meeting enough,” Baas said. “They could meet 24/7 and not come up with a compromise.”

Baas said it is important to remember that committee members have to make a compromise, and meeting more often will not necessarily make lawmakers more willing to compromise their priorities.

“I think that [Black] is missing the point about why the committee is being held up,” Baas said. “Making speeches and talking about their position isn’t making a change. The Democrats have to be willing to compromise.”

Black said the delay in solving the budget deficit is not in the best interest of Wisconsin citizens. And Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, agrees.

“The way this is being done is very leisurely with no sense of urgency,” Heck said. “They are solving this like they have no interest in resolving the issues. Or they are trying to make this a campaign issue.”

Of the 320 differences in the two bills, only two have been resolved by the committee.

“What Spencer Black is proposing is that they work a 40-hour work week every time they come to Madison,” Heck said.

Lawmakers get a stipend each time they come to Madison, which means the committee members are costing the state $88 each, per day.

“That isn’t the big point; the point is that differences have not been resolved,” Heck said. “These leaders have been around for awhile; it’s not like they don’t know what to do.”

Heck said if committee members were able to make one big compromise, they could use “the momentum of confidence” they would need to they need to resolve the big issues.

“They need to get down to work and there may be some compromises behind the scenes,” Heck said. “But certainly most of the conversation should take place in the committee meetings.”