Gov. Jim Doyle today signed a $61 billion state budget after using his veto pen to nix a handful of earmarks, eliminate a proposed Milwaukee Transit Authority and ratchet down the state's film tax credit program. (Text of Doyle's budget signing speech can be viewed here.)

Doyle praised his fellow Dems, who control both houses of the Legislature, for getting him the budget on time, saying this is the first time in 32 years the budget has been enacted before the current budget expires. The new fiscal year starts Wednesday.

Doyle said the budget includes $3 billion in cuts to state agencies that the governor called the largest in state history. Doyle said the cuts were difficult for him and legislators, "particularly during a time when people need the services the most."

"(The cuts) are painful. They frustrate me personally because we have been forced into this by national and international economic forces that were beyond the control of the people of Wisconsin," he said.

But Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said he was disappointed Doyle didn't go farther in rewriting the budget, saying too much pork, spending and higher taxes remained.

"I'd much rather be sitting at the conference committee table until August if it means we could whittle out some of the $5 billion in new taxes," Fitzgerald said, referring to the tax hikes contained in the budget and stimulus legislation Dems pushed through earlier this year. "But one-party control is driving this secret budget process, and this was the conclusion of it today."

Doyle said the budget avoids doing "irreparable harm to our services and our people by making sure we make responsible cuts that take the path of least destruction."

He thanked the members of the Joint Finance Committee and legislative leadership and members of the Legislature who voted for the budget.

"They have been members who have shown courage in difficult times. They have stepped up and they have done the right thing for Wisconsin," he said.

Doyle signed the $61 billion two-year state spending plan at a windy ceremony today at the Executive Residence. About $28 billion of that spending comes from general tax revenue, according to state budget director Dave Schmiedicke.

Overall spending was reduced by about $2 billion from the budget Doyle originally proposed back in February.

The governor also imposed in his vetoes additional lapses of about $200 million to state agencies by the end of June 2011, bringing the state's statutory balance to about $270 million at the end of the next biennium.

"I have always believed the people of Wisconsin elected me to lead them through the good times and bad," Doyle said. "To make responsible choices and at the end of the day strengthen this great state. And that is what I have tried to do, especially in this time of economic uncertainty."

Money-saving provisions in the budget include mandating 16 unpaid furlough days for all state employees over the next two years, layoffs of about 1,000 state employees and rolling back a 2 percent pay increase for non-union state employees that was to be paid beginning this year. Doyle has said the number of layoffs will climb if unions refuse to agree to rolling back the pay raise.

Doyle answered critics who say that overall state spending is rising despite the economic crisis, noting that the increased funding is from federal stimulus money released through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Total spending in the biennium, including stimulus money, will be up about $3.6 billion over the $57.4 billion spent in 2007-09.

"Those who make this allegation apparently would have us refuse stimulus dollars as Republican leaders have been urging across the United States," Doyle said. "But I believe it is crucial for Wisconsin to get its fair share of that money and to invest it in ways that help us to build our economy."

Doyle said the critics have offered no ideas for how to meet state priorities while solving the record $6.6 billion deficit.

"It is easy at times like this to sit on the sidelines and criticize everything. But for those of us who are in this position and have to make the decisions, we have to make them," he said.

Doyle said the budget "holds the line on taxes," despite prognostications that it would have to include a broad sales tax increase or income tax surcharges.

"I am proud to say that that did not happen," Doyle said. "We have protected the middle class taxpayers of Wisconsin during this difficult time."

Doyle said he's pleased the bill does not include a gas tax increase, but he still believes "big oil companies" should have to pay for road infrastructure improvements as he originally proposed in his oil profits tax. The provision was eliminated through the legislative process and replaced by lowering the tax exemption for capital gains and other moves.

"I am going to continue to search for ways in which the big oil companies should have to contribute without passing it on to the taxpayers of Wisconsin," Doyle said.

Despite the tough economy, Doyle touted the budget for protecting education, health care and public safety and for the economic development tools it contains. He called them "the most significant enacted in this state in anybody's memory."

Joining Doyle at the ceremony on the lawn of the Executive Residence were his wife Jessica; state Democratic Sens. Mark Miller, the co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, and Fred Risser; Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan; Democratic state Reps. Kim Hixson, Bob Turner and Peter Barca; Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz; UW System President Kevin Reilly; UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin; and representatives from SEIU, AFSCME and police and fire across the state.

-- By Greg Bump