First off:

On the raises for legislators, they can refuse the raise but most of them are accepting it and donating it to charity (so they say). That is fine this year but next year, everyone will forget about it so dont think they are all that great by donating.

Second: The weigh station was a complete waste of land and money. I am not sure why when they built that they could not have incorporated a welcome center, the state drivers liscense testing facility (they built an access road to build the darn thing) and the weigh station all into one. The current DL facility that was just upgraded could have been sold off.

Gubmint does not think like a business and that is the problem. What a waste of assets.

I like the idea of those that get government assistance that they should have to volunteer.

Another idea would be to "Privatatize" the welcome centers. A long term lease on the facility and the ability of the private owner to generate some income off of food, vending and possibly a resturant or two. These private business could then employ the people that will be out of work

Or how about forcing some of the people who are on state aid to "donate" some time and staff these centers?

Whats right here is that the state is doing everything to balance the budget. By closing the tourist information centers is one step. One way to keep the centers open is one word
(volunteers). Tourist expect to have a place to stop, rest, eat and tour the state. With volunteers we be able to furnish the information the tourist needs. I'm sure there are a few people who would donate there free time to help out. How about you retire men and woman?

C-ya, bye.

I think it's a great idea to close the visitor's center. How else are we going to be able to afford to build more unused weigh stations along the interstate?

Actually, in hard times, the preferable policy is to run a deficit, not cut spending. But nobody seems to understand that anymore. Most states have passed balanced budget laws, so we have fifty states being run like the US was under Hoover. It's only going to make the downturn last longer. The state spending cuts are only partly offset by the federal stimulus. In effect they are acting at cross purposes.

While I agree that often times Doyle uses scare tactics like cutting firefighters and police protection, and that Rock County's legislators should not have taken their raise. I believe all but Rep. Davis have decided to take the raise (He's donating his to charity). The reality is the state is broke. Lots of things are going to be cut. It does very little good to pick apart every cut that is made. Every dime of state spending has some constituency that will scream that the sky will fall if it is cut. How will we ever get out of this mess if we don't start accepting that something things will have to be cut during hard times? We run our homes that way, why shouldn't government be the same?

HMMM you are going to close welcome centers??? Does the Governor understand that tourists spend money in Wisconsin, and that if they don't know about events going on, places to see and such that we might lose those tourist dollars. I know from personal experience traveling to other states that as soon as we get to the first welcome center we stop. I always check out the booklets and see if there are any interesting spots to stop at along the way to visit destinations I didn't know about.There have been times that just because of a tour center that I find interesting places to go to, sometimes we go way out of our way to check out these places.
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Yes I realize the budget needs to be cut, but then again why be Penney wise and pound foolish. Cut the fat from things that are not needed, including pay raises and all the perks these legislators are getting, and make them pay in for their own health care and such as a start.

SuperDave, you are absolutely right. The things that are chosen for cutting are high profile and yet the hidden wasteful spending remains intact.

This is definitely a baby step. Isn't this 5.7 bn deficit a wish list of what the gov agencies want to spend? A while back a legislator said something about the real deficit is something like 1.5 bn???

Interesting that to "close the state's $5.7 billion deficit" - "the cuts should generate about $5 million in savings". This is less than nine cents in savings to cover $100 in deficit. Looks like the State is proposing cuts designed to hurt people, so that it appears they are "trying", rather than cut the real fat in the budget, all the do-nothing departments and overpaid bureaucrats.