Fewer people earning money or spending it means less money coming into the state’s tax collection coffers. The state is preparing for that with a required five percent budget cut across all aspects of state agencies.
Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan tells Wisconsin’s Afternoon News that the state is taking steps to keep the effect of these cuts away from most people who live in Wisconsin.
“Hopefully we’re going to ensure that it’s something people aren’t going to feel,” said Brennan.
“There are lots of areas where we need to be tightening our belt.”
Those include a hiring freeze and a halting of non-essential travel.
Brennan said the moves to reach the five-percent level began in March.
“How can we immediately save money through June 30?” he said was the main question administrators asked themselves.
“You’re going to see thoughtful efforts to do everything we can to economic changes, but hopefully in thoughtful ways and bipartisan ways.”