With the majority of states in the United States battling anemic economies and gluttonous budget deficits, the Wisconsin state legislature’s Joint Finance Committee got its first opportunity to sink its teeth into the 2003-05 budget proposal served up by Gov. Jim Doyle.

Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah, Assembly Chair of the joint committee, said that since Doyle presented his budget in February, countless hours of state agency meetings, public statewide hearings and briefings from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau have proved that Doyle’s budget is headed in the right direction, but follows a rocky road.

Kaufert says the governor’s plan miscalculates the actual revenues that the state will take in from numerous initiatives.

“The governor’s plan clearly is not balanced and includes many assumptions that are proving to be false,” Kaufert said in a statement. “Plain and simple, more cuts will need to be made because of the governor’s shaky plan.”

Members of Kaufert’s office said that the committee had been in communication with the governor and during the coming weeks would be focusing on how to improve on the proposed budget.

Meanwhile, states across the country are navigating the direst fiscal straits facing state economies since World War II. Last week the New York Times reported that the governor of Missouri was ordering every third light bulb in state buildings unscrewed to save money, Kentucky had started releasing inmates before their sentence was over and police in Michigan were considering allowing companies to advertise on the side of squad cars.

Mary Ellen Glynn, press secretary for Gov. Ted Kulongoski of Oregon, said citizens of her state were not used to being taxed and do not consider it a solution to a dismal budget situation.

“We do not have a sales tax, just an income tax which the state relies on exclusively for revenue,” Glynn said. “Our state is very anti-tax, and we’re trying to figure out how to convince citizens that the situation is bad enough to warrant higher taxes. You want to live in a state community where old ladies aren’t being thrown out of nursing homes and kids are in school the whole week, and they don’t realize yet that it’s quite that bad.”

Because Oregon relies solely on income taxes for cash, a slumping economy provides less income and therefore less tax revenues. Paradoxically, citizens who are earning less income and being taxed less need public services provided by income taxes all the more.

“One of the things we’ve had to do is take a look at something called the Oregon health plan, which was started by a different governor in the ’90s and is designed to provide health insurance to low-income people. We’re having to cut people out of that program, which means there are people with no health care coverage,” Glynn said. “We’re trying to keep a stipulation that keeps children included in that program so that poor kids will still get health care, but it’s very tight.”

Glynn said she had heard Wisconsin and Oregon were in similar situations. Both states operate on a two-year budget cycle and face massive budget cuts to deal with deficits. Oregon had already cut $1 billion out of an $11 billion two-year budget. While both states have a proud history of quality public education, they have been forced to cut large sums from education budgets to keep their heads above water.

“We’re cutting funding out of higher education. We’re pretty proud of our university system, and the last thing we want is for fewer Oregonians to be able to take advantage of it,” Glynn said. “Kindergarten through fifth grade education has cut literally all they can cut. They’ve taken out music, art and sports and now they’re to the point where they’re cutting school days. It’s really a disaster.”

Glynn said, like Doyle, Kulongoski had just entered office in January and was trying to cope with the budget situation without raising taxes and was working with the state’s U.S senators to try and squeeze additional dollars out of the federal budget.

Gov. Gary Locke of Washington also presented a state budget that tried to balance budgets without raising taxes. Unlike Doyle and Kulongoski, Locke had the benefit of being in office when the problem presented itself.

Ed Penhale from Locke’s office of financial management said that Locke’s budget was currently under review of the state’s Democratic Assembly.

“We started off with a $2.4 billion deficit, and the governor’s budget proposal dealt with that situation mainly through reductions in spending,” Penhale said. “Our Republican Senate adopted a budget proposal that generally followed the governor’s priorities and did contain some additional reductions in health care and education that the governor generally did not approve of.”

Washington had been prospering until the dot.com boom of the late ’90s soured and technology firms began to suffer. As home to large aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing, the state’s economy took a hit when the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks sent the airline industry into a downward spiral.