Governor Jim Doyle orders his agency heads to forgo their scheduled pay raises.
"As of June sixth the cabinet secretaries will not take the 2% raise that has been scheduled."
Linda Barth, spokesperson with the Department of Administration, says cabinet secretaries are mindful of the bad economic situation many Wisconsin families face, so no one opposed the governor's order to bypass their upcoming salary increases.
"Of course not, I think this group really is in touch with what's going on in Wisconsin especially what's happening in these tough economic times and tough state budget times. So it was a unanimous decision."
Although all of the 16 leaders make over $100,000 a year, the cut doesn't add up to much when considering the $5.7 billion budget shortfall. Barth says it's a symbolic move.
"The savings would be about $38,000 so in terms of addressing kind of the deficit and other things, it's not a tremendous amount but we hope it speaks volumes to the people out there."
Cabinet secretaries last received a 1% raise in July of last year. Last month, all 132 members of the state Legislature got a 5.3% pay hike over two years; some lawmakers voluntarily declined that increase while others donated it to charity.