The Legislative Fiscal Bureau late yesterday afternoon released its official projection of shared revenue cuts under Gov. Jim Doyle's proposed 2003-2005 state budget bill, but news reports today indicated that Assembly Speaker John Gard envisions much steeper shared revenue reductions.

Gard told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that, among other things, Assembly Republicans don't like the governor's plan to use $500 million from the state transportation fund to shore up shared revenues and school aids. To offset elimination of that transfer, he said, deeper cuts in shared revenue than in school aids are likely.

"Shared revenue is the less popular of the two programs," Gard told the Journal Sentinel. For the Journal Sentinel story, click here.

The governor, in Green Bay Thursday, had a different view of shared revenue.

"When I talked to people around the state about what's important to them," he told a news conference, "the universal answer was good fire protection, good police protection, maintaining roads and keeping them plowed, having good parks, good schools, access to decent health care. These are all services provided by something other than the state, and they depend on shared revenues to a certain extent.

"(The shared revenue cuts) are not insignificant, they won't go unnoticed," Doyle said. "But I'm convinced they're manageable if we work closely with state and local officials."

For the Green Bay News-Chronicle story on Doyle's news conference, look here. For the Green Bay Press-Gazette story, look here.

The cuts could mean extensive layoffs at the local level across the state, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. See that story here.

The Legislature's Joint Finance Committee is holding public hearings on the budget around the state  beginning March 24 in Rhinelander and ending April 9 in Madison. See the schedule here.

The cumulative shared revenue cuts for 2004 as they affect the Alliance of Cities — this includes cuts scheduled under the administration of former Gov. Scott McCallum as well as those proposed in Gov. Doyle's budget bill — is $35.8 million. For the breakdown for each of our cities, look here.

For the Fiscal Bureau shared revenue documents, look here.

For the Alliance's March 5 (pre-earthquake) newsletter, look here.