Wisconsin not alone in budget problems

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Wisconsin’s not going to be alone next year when it’s forced to balance a state budget already hundreds of millions of dollars in the red.

The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that states face a collective deficit of more than $40 million in the current budget year -- three times the cumulative shortfall from the previous year.

The shortfall is the largest since the recession brought on by the dot-com boom earlier this decade, although in this case it's generally being from a drop in income and sales tax revenues across the board.

NCSL Fiscal Program Director Corina Eckl says it may get worse for states before it gets better.

"We don't know where we are at this point in the current downturn,” says Eckl. “Will things start to stabilize in the next six to twelve months? We simply don't know. And as we talk to states about their concern, they do point to 2010 as being a year of additional problems. We just had a discussion … among many legislative fiscal directors and several indicated they have not yet hit bottom. And obviously you have to get to the bottom before you can start building yourself back up again."

By NCSL's measure, Wisconsin’s budget faces a gap of more than $330 million in the current budget, although lawmakers and Gov. Doyle largely pushed those expenses off until the next budget.

Compared to other states, Wisconsin's budget troubles are meager.

California faces a budget deficit of $15 billion, while Arizona's budget gap is around $2 billion.

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