Author: jnweaver

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents is certainly correct in suspending the practice of guaranteeing backup jobs to administrators in case their original assignments don’t work out. Who wouldn’t love a backup deal for his or her own job?

Just days after receiving negative publicity for appearing at a gay pride rally, Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager has asked a Dane County judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking domestic partnership benefits for state of Wisconsin employees.

Republican lawmakers are questioning whether Gov. Jim Doyle exceeded his veto powers – which are already considered among the broadest in the nation – by rewriting key portions of this year’s state budget.

While the state Supreme Court has permitted governors to use the veto pen to reduce spending, strike out words and even write whole new state laws, the Republicans contend Doyle may have overstepped constitutional bounds.

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents announced Tuesday that it would suspend temporarily the practice of guaranteeing backup jobs to administrators in the UW System.

Gov. Jim Doyle used 139 state budget vetoes Monday to boost state spending for public schools by $861 million over the next two years and to try to keep property taxes in check for homeowners.

In an official request sent Monday, leaders of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee demanded that the University of Wisconsin System offer up detailed information about paid leaves and backup appointments granted to university administrators, saying recent media reports of such practices had given them cause for concern.

Gov. Jim Doyle on Monday struck down a bid by state legislators and Waukesha County Executive Dan Finley to merge the University of Wisconsin campuses in Waukesha and Milwaukee, arguing that the issue should be decided by the Board of Regents.

Colum on Tax Incremental Financing by Matthew Mayrl, a research associate at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, a research and policy center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The NCAA plans to begin more closely monitoring betting lines on games and to start background checks on baseball and hockey officials as part of its antigambling efforts. The moves are being made after an NCAA study last year found that 35 percent of male athletes and 10 percent of female athletes had gambled on college sports during the previous year.

One response from an NCAA task force on gambling would have the organization start checking in regularly with a longtime antagonist – the Las Vegas sports books.

Gov. Jim Doyle says he still has full confidence in embattled UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley.

And the governor says he does not believe that the ongoing controversy over Wiley’s handling of the Paul Barrows case has hurt the UW’s standing with state lawmakers.

….Doyle’s comments came after he announced he will veto more than $50 million in Republican cuts to the University of Wisconsin System budget and student financial aid.

UW Hospital plans to buy 42 acres of land on Madison’s far east side for $8.9 million to accommodate expansion. The purchase of three parcels from American Family Insurance in its American Center business park over the next five years will alleviate congestion at the hospital’s main location, 600 Highland Ave. on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

The Madison City Council Tuesday night approved a zoning change that would allow the land at the northwest corner of the business park to be used for inpatient hospital services.

Legislative leaders blocked pay raises Tuesday for about 35 top officials across the University of Wisconsin System pending a report on UW personnel policies. The action was an outgrowth of news reports of five highly paid administrators getting paid leaves. Some of them sought new jobs while on the leaves.

The vote by the Joint Committee on Employment Relations was 6-0.

A Republican legislator wants to create a law to ban schools in the University of Wisconsin System from giving administrators paid leave and backup jobs when they resign.

Rep. Rob Kreibich, R-Eau Claire, the head of the Assembly’s colleges and universities committee, said the leaves aren’t appropriate at a time when state funding is tight and the university system is complaining of being shortchanged by the Legislature.

About 20,000 members of the Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have ratified contracts for the two-year budget period that ended last month.

The four WSEU contracts cover workers in administrative support, blue collar and non-building trades, security, public safety and technical work. Seven other bargaining units in other unions representing 4,500 workers – including UW teaching assistants, engineers, public defenders, state attorneys, research professionals and others – have not settled their contracts.