Ear to the Ground - State News Roundup

Wisconsin's prosecutors want a tax hike on alcohol to pay for more lawyers.

New York has $300 million in ready-to-go highway and bridge projects around the state that Congress is likely to include in an economic stimulus package next month.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo — along with five key administration members — will take a voluntary 10 percent pay cut in 2009 to save the state $100,000.

Colorado Republicans are calling for a repeal of the business personal property tax.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich yesterday visited workers who had taken over a Chicago Factory Republic Windows & Doors, lending them his strong moral credibility and authority. Blagojevich also used his personal knowledge of the legal system and deep respect and zeal for the law to declare that the state would pursue a federal injunction against the company and bank if negotiations were not satisfactory. Also in Illinois, despite their state's chronic overspending problem, Gov. Blagojevich hired 208 prison guards who don't have a prison to guard, at a cost to taxpayers $10.8 million for their first year of work. Perhaps motivated by a his dedication to better understand the law and get a grip on the prison problem through a deeper understanding of the prison system through personal experience, Gov. Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff John Harris were arrested earlier today in a 76-page federal indictment alleging conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery.