MILWAUKEE -- Gov. Jim Doyle said he's cautiously hopeful that Congress will approve a federal stimulus package for the states.

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At a Milwaukee news conference Thursday, the Democratic governor said questions remain about how the money would be spent and monitored. But he said congressional leaders understand how much people are hurting.

Doyle was among three governors Thursday who asked Congress for financial help as the recession deepens.

Doyle said Thursday that he was prepared to make "painful cuts" to state government. The governor told House members that currently one in 10 state jobs are unfilled, and that he might have to double the number of workers out of a job. But Doyle said even those cuts wouldn't solve the state's deficit.

"I could cut the workforce in Wisconsin, deliver no services -- in half -- and we still wouldn't be dealing with the full scope of the deficit we face," Doyle said.

The governor told Congress he faced having to cut state services and infrastructure projects to deal with a looming $5.4 billion budget shortfall.

"What we are left with is cutting away our state's ability to carry out the most essential expectations people have for government. We will be forced to cut the very tools and service that people depend on to pull them out of a recession and move them ahead," Doyle said.

Doyle told the U.S. House Appropriations Committee in Washington on Thursday that Wisconsin will collect $3 billion less in taxes over the next two years. The governor said that jeopardizes state schools, universities, technical colleges, access to health care and local police and fire service.

Doyle gave an example of a public safety program at risk -- the Milwaukee Police Department's Neighborhood Task Force.

The governor credited the program for reducing crime in Milwaukee by 10 percent and homicides by 33 percent.

The chair of the committee, U.S. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., said Thursday that without an estimated $200 billion appropriation to state governments, Congress could "make the problem worse."

Doyle gave President-elect Barack Obama's economic team a list Wednesday of nearly 1,800 projects in Wisconsin that could benefit immediately from any sort of federal stimulus package.

Doyle's list is made up of $3.7 billion worth of infrastructure projects that are ready to go. One area where the immediate job impact can be measured is highway and bridge projects worth some $320 million. It would mean a boost to an industry that's seen job losses of 25 percent or more.

"We can expect that based on these numbers, if there's' about $320 million in highway and bridge projects, it would probably create about 9,300 jobs based on formulas that the federal highway department uses," said Kevin Traas, of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association.

Doyle's list also includes more than $750 million of school building and maintenance projects. Some of those projects passed and others failed in referenda since February of this year.

"Anytime that we're able to invest in school infrastructure, you're protecting the local investment that the property taxpayers have made, you're improving the educational experience for children, and, at the same time, you're putting people to work," said John Forester, of the School Administrators Alliance.

But Doyle's ideas are not sitting well with state Republican leadership.

"I think if past experience tells you anything, it says that any time the government sets itself a goal to spend a lot of money and spend it very rapidly that what tends to happen is a lot of it gets wasted," said Republican Rep. Mark Gottlieb, assistant minority leader.

Republican legislators said they are specifically concerned with funding failed school referenda, saying it's an affront to taxpayers who voted down the measures.

The School Administrators Alliance and the State Budget Office said they're still looking into how many of those projects would be ready to go for any infrastructure plan.

The funding for projects isn't the only federal help Doyle is seeking. In the immediate term, the governor is asking for federal funding for unemployment and medical assistance programs.