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Since the beginning of the year, government has operated at the state Capitol with a black cloud looming over every meeting, every committee hearing and every bill working its way toward becoming law. That cloud is the looming specter of a budget shortfall, and unfortunately, it’s an all too familiar one to families and businesses throughout Wisconsin.

The deficit in Madison is a whopping $652 million, and Wisconsin is one of at least 24 states that will face a budget shortfall in 2009, according to the Washington, D.C., based Center of Budget and Policy Priorities. The total deficit for these states is expected to total more than $34 billion in fiscal year 2009.

Those are eye-opening numbers, but ultimately that doesn’t mean much to families who have their own, more immediate concerns to worry about. When there’s $3-a-gallon gas, ever-climbing costs for health care, heating bills and groceries, and concerns about the credit and housing markets, there’s not much sympathy left over for a government crying poverty.

Unfortunately, this bleak economic reality doesn’t seem to concern some politicians in Madison. Even though there are families, right now, who are forced to make tough decisions about what they can afford and how to make ends meet, there are still politicians in Madison who are trying to find a way to raise their taxes.

Families are struggling with the high cost of health care, and there’s a proposal in Madison to raise taxes on hospitals, resulting in higher medical bills throughout the state.

Businesses are struggling with a poor economy, and there are multiple proposals from the state Senate to pass job-killing tax hikes on hometown businesses that operate across state lines.

For some politicians, it seems, there’s no problem a tax hike can’t solve, and there’s no time like the present for the government to dig even deeper into your pockets.

Republicans in the state Assembly, on the other hand, have shown with exact dollars and cents that the shortfall can be fixed without resorting to higher taxes. Two weeks ago, we passed a budget repair bill that addresses the shortfall the same way Wisconsin families are addressing their own: by tightening the belt, cutting unnecessary spending and dipping into the savings account.

Last week, Democrats in the state Senate chose to take the “tax first, spend more” route instead. Now it’s up to the two sides, and Gov. Jim Doyle, to resolve the differences between the respective proposals and fix the state’s deficit before it gets any worse.

The approach my fellow Assembly Republicans and I will take to reach consensus is based on two simple principles. First, the people of Wisconsin are looking to us to close the shortfall without raising taxes, and second, this is a budget repair bill, and as such it should not be used as opportunity to re-open budget battles.

I am hopeful that we can come to consensus in the very near future, and more importantly, that the solution we do reach doesn’t increase the tax burden for Wisconsin families. Our state is already the eighth-highest-taxed in the entire country, and there’s no excuse to make that worse, shortfall or no shortfall.

We have a responsibility to fix the state’s budget, but we owe it to the people of Wisconsin to realize what kind of an impact that fix is going to have on their budgets as well.

The dark cloud over the Capitol is still looming, but there’s a better solution than simply sending those dark clouds over the roofs of Wisconsin homes and businesses instead.

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, represents the 94th Assembly District.