Gov. Jim Doyle's budget proposal has state traffic forecaster William Gavinski thinking about retirement.

Augustine Tatus, a children and families policy analyst, wonders how he'll keep up with rising housing, utility and food costs.

And revenue agent Wayne Mertens foresees fewer salaried state workers and more private contractors.

"Tears, harm and fear to sum it up," Mertens said of state workers' reaction to Doyle's budget. "And no faith in the governor or his party that usually promotes workers."

Unlike some governors, Doyle's 2009-11 budget, which he unveiled last week, doesn't use furloughs or job cuts to close the budget shortfall currently projected at about $5 billion.

And he's resurrected a couple of initiatives that some state workers say they like: allowing the domestic partners of state workers to participate in the state health care program and letting state university faculty and staff unionize.

But at a time when he says everyone is going to have to share the pain of a difficult budget, Doyle has set aside no money in his proposal for state worker pay raises and said state employees should expect to pay more for health insurance and see their state retirement contributions fall.

Those details are still subject to negotiation with state employee unions, which will commence in April.

Doyle also wants to kill a law that requires a cost-benefit analysis before hiring the private sector to do some work rather than have state employees do it.

"State employees are scapegoats, and we can't bear it anymore," Tatus said. "The governor should also know that the state workers voted for him. It will be difficult now for people to vote for him again. He needs to take that into consideration."

Fewer state positions

There are currently more than 69,000 state workers, including University Of Wisconsin system and University Hospital employees.

About 40 percent of them work in Dane County.

In their first significant raises since 2002, state workers got a 2 percent raise in December 2007, a 1 percent raise in July and are projected to get a 2 percent increase in June.

Doyle's budget proposal doesn't rescind it. The budget proposal projects 86 fewer positions statewide by June 2011 compared to the number employed now.

That's 123 fewer than administration officials acknowledged last week.

More than 100 job cuts will come at Union Grove's Southern Wisconsin Center for the developmentally disabled, where the Department of Health Services is moving people to home and other settings.

Dozens of others will occur through the closure of mobile Department of Motor Vehicles offices, the removal of staff members from state welcome centers and the elimination of divisions within the Department of Administration.

But some of those people will be able to land in currently vacant positions, said Dave Schmiedicke, state budget director.

Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, co-chairman of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, said he supported Doyle's proposals to let university workers unionize and to provide health benefits to the domestic partners of state workers.

But he said he's "very concerned" about the pay and benefits proposals.

"State workers have taken on an increased workload because we've been decreasing positions," Miller said. "And pay isn't going up and they have to pay more for health care. But I recognize we're in a severe budget crunch."

Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, Miller's Assembly counterpart, said he hadn't seen the details of Doyle's proposals affecting state workers, but added he doesn't want them to become a "political tool" in the budget debate.

Ripple effects

Andrew Reschovsky, an economics professor at UW-Madison, said if state workers don't get pay raises while paying more in health insurance premiums and retirement costs, they'll either have to save less or spend less, which would affect Madison's economy.

"Cutting back on spending has a multiplier effect," he said.

Susan Schmitz, president of Downtown Madison, Inc., said the budget proposal could have an impact on businesses on the Capitol Square and State Street.

But she said retailers have been adept at luring customers, including state workers — even during the current economic crisis.

Despite the tough proposals by Doyle, Reschovsky said it could be more dire for state workers.

The $787 billion federal economic stimulus bill — more than $2 billion of which Doyle is using to stave off program cuts in education and Medicaid — is saving many of their jobs, Reschovsky said.

"It could be a lot worse," he said. "Is the glass half full or half empty?"

— State Journal reporter Jason Stein contributed to this story.