[media-credit name=’CHRISTY PANKRATZ/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Capitol Square was flooded Wednesday afternoon with the loud protests of angry public workers, sympathetic honking car horns and music from a taxpayers group, which looped between politicians’ calls for decreased spending and U2’s "Beautiful Day."

Members of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union and members of Americans for Prosperity were pitted against each other from across ideological lines, as each group hopes the state Legislature will pass the budget best suiting them.

The rally was officially organized by the Wisconsin chapter of AFP, a national organization that promotes reducing the size and scope of government to promote individual productivity and prosperity.

AFSCME, however, represents nearly all state workers in Wisconsin, and their members came out to rally against the demonstration being held by the AFP. Those supporting the AFP gathered around the Capitol steps, listening to several speakers including WIBA-FM Republican talk show host Vicki McKenna and AFP Wisconsin Director Mark Block.

Meanwhile, AFSCME protesters surrounded the taped-off area with their signs and chants.

AFP organizers said they saw the rally as a huge success, with supporters coming to the Capitol from all around Wisconsin.

"If the Legislature and Gov. Doyle did not hear the voices from the taxpayers of Wisconsin, then they’re deaf," Block said.

University of Wisconsin students and faculty played a big part in the rally and came out to show their support for both sides.

AFP officials were also very enthusiastic about UW students participating in the rally.

"We got an excellent student turnout today — we got students all the way from Eau Claire and Stevens Point," said Kyle Maichle, president of AFP’s UW-Madison chapter. "We really got the point across that we can’t afford higher taxes, or higher tuition."

Unlike many students and faculty, UW-Superior employee Barb Daleiden-Landis supported the AFSCME rally. As manager of a financial aid program at UW-Superior, she doesn’t like to think about the consequences of no state budget.

"University monies will be cut, it will mean job layoffs and students aren’t getting tuition grants," Daleiden-Landis said. "It could potentially close the universities for second semester."

UW-Madison could also be affected by the lack of a budget. Hilary Virtanen, a project assistant with the UW-Madison Department of Scandinavian studies and member of the Teaching Assistant Association, said legislators need to know what their constituents think about the budget.

"What I’m just here to do is to prove to the government and the people watching out those windows that the Americans for Prosperity aren’t the majority in Wisconsin, and that Wisconsin needs to have our budget balanced," Virtanen said. "We need to be able to know how much money we can spend on education, we need education and health insurance and our unions to be prioritized in the next budget because families are the ones who are ultimately benefited from that."

The only thing protesters on both sides agreed on was that a budget needs to pass soon.

Jon Patzlsberger, AFSCME Local 3394 president, said legislators need to do their job and pass a budget, as it is currently more than 100 days late.

Doyle called the Legislature into a special session Monday and introduced a new compromise budget bill, which the Democratic-controlled Senate passed. The Republican-controlled Assembly did not pass this version of the budget.

"We want the budget passed, and we want state employees treated fairly," Patzlsberger said. "They expect state employees to work seven days a week and work weekends, but they don’t want to compensate through wages or benefits."

Patzlsberger works as a corrections officer at Columbia Correctional in Portage, Wis. He said he likes Doyle’s budget compromise because corrections is allotted the same amount of money as when the original budget bill came out of the joint finance committee, before the Assembly Republicans removed the funding. He says the passage of a state budget is critical to the operations of his facility.

"We’re double-and triple-celled in every institution. We have to take in so many inmates, but we don’t have any new prisons, so we have to keep them," Patzlsberger said. "When you take in an extra 1,000 inmates a month, you have to feed those 1,000 inmates. We need more money."

Yet McKenna said she does not want to pay higher taxes. The WIBA-FM host said she was speaking on behalf of taxpayers not as a celebrity, but as an average Wisconsin resident who simply doesn’t want higher taxes.

"Wisconsin is the eighth-highest taxed state in the country," McKenna said amid an array of boos and cheers. "The Democrats want to make us No.1."

McKenna added that unlike special interest groups, the average citizen cannot hire someone to advocate for keeping taxes at a reasonable rate.

"The taxpayers themselves don’t have a paid lobbyist inside the Capitol building. A lot of taxpayers are really frustrated with their inability to speak to the people," McKenna said in an interview with The Badger Herald. "I share their concerns and frustrations. I’m just a middle-class taxpayer, too."