Gov. Jim Doyle said today his warning of another round of budget cuts in last night's State of the State address was a reference to the $200 million in unspecified lapses called for in the 2009-11 budget bill signed last year.

Doyle used his veto pen to include an additional $200 million in cuts to state agencies, a move that gave the state a $290 million "cushion," Doyle said.

"It is very likely I will have to make those $200 million, or at least a significant portion of those $200 million in cuts," Doyle said today at a press conference in McFarland to tout a clean energy bill.

Doyle said the cuts will be meted out across state agencies, but said protecting education will remain a priority.

"Everybody may feel a little pain, but we're not going to see the kinds of destructive actions that have happened in other states," he said.

With new fiscal outlook numbers due to be released soon, Doyle said it looks like another budget repair bill may be avoidable.

"I think so. But I want to put a big 'I think so' on that," Doyle said. "Because frankly economists -- we base these budgets based on these projections -- and in this economy, economists have a hard time sort of projecting where we're going to be six months or a year from now."

Doyle said layoffs to state workers should be avoidable, but couldn't definitively say there won't be any.

"We really worked hard to avoid layoffs. Particularly in this economy, I don't want to be putting people out of work," he said.

Doyle said holding 10 percent of state positions vacant and requiring an eight-day furlough on state workers this year and next has helped to avoid about 1,500 layoffs of state workers.

-- By Greg Bump