What's the most important issue facing the state these days? According to a recent poll by St. Norbert College, it's high taxes and government spending. No surprise there, really. The two have been at the top of the list likely since government was invented. About 35 percent of those surveyed think the tax structure is the problem. Some of those 35 percent upset about the budget say that government is spending money too much on the wrong things and too little on the right things.

In second place is government ethics. About 11 percent say this broad category is their top concern. Over half of the comments in the category say Gov. Doyle is the biggest problem while partisanship and politics was second. It appears that people are still smarting from the state budget process.

The economy concerned 9 percent of the survey. Unemployment and the need for more good-paying jobs got their emotions going. A category that is usually out of the view of our urban eyes -- the loss of family farms -- popped up here.

While dominating a few weeks of negotiating during the state budget negotiations this summer and fall, universal health care hit the top of the charts for another 9 percent of those surveyed. Quality and price were also cited.

Lack of education funding was on the top of the mind for most of the 8 percent who chose that category as the biggest concern. Overcrowding, teacher pay, dropouts and cost were also mentioned.

And here's another pocketbook issue -- gas prices. About 5 percent say prices are too high and we need alternative fuels.

Crime's always a biggie in an election year, but surprisingly not in this survey, checking in with 3 percent. Perhaps if the questions were asked solely in Milwaukee that issue would be near the top with taxes. One respondent said there were too many prisoners in the state.

The environment continues to drop, with about 2 percent saying that pollution, energy and water use should be at the forefront of the state agenda.

And in the stuff pundits look at more closely than issues, Gov. Doyle was given a satisfactory grade less than a year after his re-election. The survey says Doyle gets the nod for doing a good job from 54 percent of the folks asked. About 44 percent said they weren't happy with Doyle the summer before the 2006 election, which had the GOP drooling that he was one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the country, but in just a year he seems to have repaired that image.

Part of that is due to the Legislature stalling the budget for more than a 100 days. And it seems to have taken the brunt of the negative perception as survey respondents show serious disdain for the folks who work under the dome. About 50 percent say they are dissatisfied with those doing the will of the taxpayers and a mere 41 percent are relatively content with their actions.

St. Norbert's surveyed 401 people in the last week of October and the first week of November, for a survey with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

It's Logging Season Along the Milwaukee River: Clear-cutting along the Milwaukee River has apparently been en vogue recently as cases in Glendale and a long-running dispute in River Hills are ending up in court and negotiated settlements.

The case in River Hills involves the tony Milwaukee Country Club and its leaving the banks along the river devoid of some quarter-mile of trees in order to build a new tee box for its golf course and open up some views of the river. The cutting of some 20 mature trees happened last year.

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