Each one of us faces decisions every day of our lives and some of them are far more important than others. Am I going to go to class today? Which place are we going to dinner tonight? Where should I buy my shoes? These questions pale in comparison to the decision that currently lies before Gov. Jim Doyle: Should he go to China or stay at home and work with state lawmakers on the budget?

With a budget that has been stalled out due to lack of compromise on both sides of the aisle, schools and universities across the state are already back in session with no clear idea as to how much state funding they can count on.

Many college students face uncertainty, left out on a limb waiting for the moment that our financial aid will finally come through so that we can attend classes for another year.

This is a time when a leader is needed to take hold of the situation.

The budget for the state for the rest of 2007 and through 2009 was supposed to be on Doyle’s desk submitted for approval on July 1, but political partisan bickering has led to a two month standoff.

Republicans from the state Assembly have assembled a package that calls for lower taxes across the board, while the state Democratic senators have created a package that calls for higher taxes, including an increase on cigarettes by $1.25 per pack.

A middle ground compromise seems to be far from reach. Instead of heading off to China, Doyle should spear-head the committee to hammer out the details of the new budget before anything else is even considered.

Doyle and his fellow state government representatives seem to be lacking the common sense. By dragging their feet on the matter, they are simply wasting more taxpayer money that is desperately needed across the state for the various programs that their laws have set up in the first place.

What makes this even more ironic is that during a recent press conference at Wauwatosa West High School, Doyle was trying to use the dependent position of the public schools to urge legislators to come to an agreement on the budget when he stated, “It is time for the grown-ups to emerge here, and it is time for the game-playing to stop.”

Instead of placing the responsibility of stepping up on some random state government official, why doesn’t he step forward, try to work through the partisan differences, and take the initiative to get the budget settled? Why is it that someone else needs to take on the work and see that it gets done? But that has been the mind set of the governor’s office ever since Doyle was sworn in, back in 2003.

It seems as if the general agenda of the current governor is to simply pass the buck so he can take some time off traveling. The political machine in Madison seems to have other plans for those bucks before they get passed to where they are desperately needed.

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