Tomorrow the state legislature will convene for the start of another two-year legislative session. At 10 a.m., lawmakers will file into their seats on the Senate and Assembly floors and start the process of dealing with a budget estimated to be as high as $4.3 billion for the next two-year budget cycle.

One of the first measures the assembly will consider is Governor Jim Doyle’s emergency budget bill, proposed in light of a Legislative Fiscal Bureau report estimating the budget shortfall for the current fiscal year to be $452 million.

The emergency bill calls for an immediate reduction of spending for state-run operations, including the administration of the University of Wisconsin, cutting the amount of grant money currently paid out by state government and transferring money from state-owned funds and accounts. Doyle has asked for swift action on the emergency bill and hopes it will decrease the current deficit by $161.5 million.

“It is vital that the legislature acts quickly on this repair bill, because every day we wait, it is harder for us to reduce our spending for this fiscal year,” Doyle said.

Under the emergency bill, any remaining deficit from this year will be rolled over and included in Doyle’s two-year budget plan, which he will present to legislation on Feb. 18.

“This emergency bill will be a down payment on the deficit,” Doyle said.

The state senate will also have to confirm nearly 130 executive appointments, including Doyle’s appointment of five new members to the UW System Board of Regents. The Regent appointees will bear additional importance for the UW System, as the Board will try and cope with looming budget cuts without raising tuition or reducing admissions.

The senate will have to approve appointments to many other state citizen boards, from the Board of Regents to the Barbering and Cosmetology Examining Board and Real Estate Board.

State congress will also see bills being proposed on a number of other issues, including funding for the eradication of Chronic Wasting Disease in the state’s deer herd and bills on moral issues such as the death penalty and abortion.

Recent scandals could expedite the passing of bills reforming campaign finance and the prison system. In light of last year’s caucus scandal, Doyle promised on the night he was elected to “change the way we do business in Madison.”