The Wisconsin Historical Society Board of Curators will meet today to consider budget cuts demanded by Gov. Jim Doyle, according to Board Chair Mark Gajewski.
The Historical Society oversees the Wisconsin Historical Museum on the Capitol Square and the UW history department's library, among other projects.
The governor's office has ordered all state agencies to create a plan to cut expenses and staff by 10 percent and submit it to the Gov. Doyle by Nov. 15, Ethnie Groves, spokesperson for Doyle said.
The Historical Society will have to trim $1 million and 11 jobs from facilities that have already suffered from past budget cuts, Gajewski said.
\We're now operating at the same staff level that we were in 1972. These cuts are very difficult to make because there's not a whole lot of room to do anything,"" Gajewski said.
The Historical Society Library will probably not be closed due to the university's dependence on it, Gajewski said. However, the Historical Museum may be forced to shut down.
Historical Society Director Ellsworth Brown and Associate Director Bob Thomasgard were unwilling to share the proposed budget cuts with the public prior to today's meeting, according to The Capital Times.
Attendance to the museum has suffered in recent years. Gajewski attributes this to the decline in travel after the Sept. 11 attacks and the rising price of gas, which has caused a drop in attendance to historical sites across the country.
The building that houses the Historical Museum was originally a hardware store and is not well suited for a museum, Gajewski said.
""The Smithsonian sends a lot of exhibitions all over the country and our museum just isn't equipped to handle something like that,"" Gajewski said.
However, there is a brighter possibility for the future of the museum. In his 1998 State of the State address, former Governor Tommy Thompson announced that an anonymous donor had offered to provide funds for a new Historical Center. However, because of the state budget crisis and the Sept. 11 attacks, the idea for the new museum was pigeonholed, Gajewski said.
The new center would join the Overture Center and other museums, creating a cultural center downtown and providing a big tourist draw for the city, Gajewski said.
