Author: jplucas

Madison – Now that the Joint Finance Committee has wrapped up its work, hundreds of state budget provisions make their way to the full Legislature.

MILWAUKEE (AP) â?? New rules will prohibit University of Wisconsin campuses and employees from accepting payments from private lenders, a response to a national scandal over ties between universities and companies offering student loans.The UW System Board of Regents, which governs 13 four-year universities and 13 two-year colleges, approved the rules during a meeting Friday at UW-Milwaukee.

Madison – The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee on Friday forwarded a $58 billion budget that largely strengthens Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s position on many key issues.

Hundreds of budget provisions are a step closer to becoming law, including higher fees for residents registering their cars and renewing their driver’s licenses; a rise in the cigarette tax; and increasing University of Wisconsin System tuition.

Three senior Milwaukee County political leaders and philanthropist Michael Cudahy on Friday threw their support behind a proposed engineering school and research park that the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee wants to build just west of the city as an incubator of economic growth.

The officials addressed the UW Board of Regents ahead of a meeting Monday of the Milwaukee County economic development committee, which is scheduled to vote on a motion to begin talks to sell a parcel of unused county land in Wauwatosa for the UWM campus.

A bid by Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D) to provide domestic partner health benefits to state workers has been thwarted in the legislature.

The House budget committee voted along party lines to reject the measure. Democrats were in favor of the plan but they failed to get the one Republican vote they needed to insert the policy into the budget.

MINNEAPOLIS — An analyst said the University of Minnesota is losing $7.5 million a year in tuition under an agreement that allows Wisconsin students to attend Minnesota schools for the same tuition they would pay in Wisconsin.

A university analyst provided the figure to the Board of Regents Thursday as he outlined details of a four-part proposal for tuition reform.

Minnesota and Wisconsin are in talks about changing the reciprocity agreement. Analyst Peter Zetterberg said the board would be asked on Friday to withdraw its approval of the current reciprocity agreement, beginning with freshmen who enter in the fall of 2008.

State legislators on both sides of the political aisle appear to be in agreement that maintaining a strong university system at an affordable cost to students is in the best interests of all Wisconsinites.

The Joint Finance Committee this week voted to direct nearly $150 million in additional tax revenue over a two-year period to the University of Wisconsin System to hold down tuition increases in a time of rising energy prices and health care costs. The committee agreed to spend $29.4 million to finance a plan to expand enrollment at many of its campuses, and it approved Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s request for $10 million over two years to boost pay for high-demand faculty members.

When a legislative session ends, thoughts at the University of Minnesota turn quickly to tuition. It was a good session for the university, and the pricing ideas emanating from Morrill Hall this week are mostly good too, to wit:

â?¢ Wisconsin Discount Days should come to an end at the University of Minnesota. The arrangement officially called “reciprocity” tilts too far in the Badger State’s direction. President Robert Bruininks is right: If the two states’ higher education negotiators can’t come up with a new agreement that’s fairer to Minnesota, the Board of Regents should unilaterally charge Wisconsin students Minnesota resident rates, beginning with the 2008 freshman class.

MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley is praising lawmakers for voting to create a $10 million to retain faculty and staff in the UW System.

Wiley said Tuesday’s 16-0 vote by the Legislature’s budget committee is an important step in addressing a serious threat to the quality of UW System campuses.

He said the money will help his campus keep the very best and most productive faculty from being hired away by out-of-state institutions.

The $10 million will be split up between the system’s campuses over the next two years to help chancellors match offers from universities trying to hire away Wisconsin professors.

The legislature’s Joint Finance Committee this week rejected a budget measure that would have created domestic partner benefits for state employees. Despite that, a UW faculty group says they’ll continue their fight to have the state recognize the need for those benefits.

Louise Robbins is President of Profs, Inc, a group on the UW-Madison campus. She says the vote this week from Republicans was disappointing. But she says the battle’s not over and the group will work to get the provision added back into the budget.

Despite getting a one-year reprieve earlier this year, the college tuition-reciprocity agreement between Minnesota and Wisconsin is again heating up.

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents is expected to take up whether or not to continue the agreement at their June 27 meeting.

The Legislature’s budget committee today refused to allow domestic partner benefits for state employees.
The committee voted along party lines to reject Governor Doyle’s plan to make health insurance and other benefits available to the partners of gay and straight state employees.

Democrats were in favor of the plan but they failed to get the one Republican vote they needed to insert the policy into the budget.