Author: jplucas

MADISON, Wis. â?? Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s plan to promise higher education to eighth-graders who meet certain goals during high school moved a step closer to reality on Tuesday after clearing the Legislatureâ??s budget committee.

The Joint Finance Committee also kept alive Doyleâ??s plans to increase state funding by $21.4 million to begin plans to add more seats and programs at University of Wisconsin System campuses and give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants who graduate from Wisconsin high schools.

MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposal to extend domestic partner benefits to all state employees failed to pass the Legislature’s budget-writing committee on Tuesday.

The Joint Finance Committee is evenly split with eight Republicans and eight Democrats and the committee members voted along party lines. This essentially blocked the proposal from being included in this version of the state budget. A tie vote means current law remains in place, WISC-TV reported.

Domestic partner benefits get shot down in the legislature’s budget committee. Governor Jim Doyle included language in his budget, to allow the state to offer benefits to domestic partners of state employees. Madison Democrat, Representative Mark Pocan, said it wouldn’t cost much, noting the University of Minnesota claimed the total cost for providing domestic partner benefits in state was $189,000.

Governor Jim Doyle’s Wisconsin Covenant has survived the budget committee. There was plenty of back and forth over the plan, which Democrats like Sen. Lena Taylor love. “It goes with the legacy of Wiconsin, ” said Taylor.

After almost forty years of agreement, Minnesota just might end its tuition reciprocity agreement with Wisconsin .

The program helps to expand education opportunities and affordability for about 28-thousand students per year. Wisconsinites can go to college in Minnesota , and vice versa, for an in-state rate. But Wisconsin state senator Sheila Harsdorf ( R-River Falls ) is worried, now that Minnesota officials say it’s no longer fair and they could ax the program.

MADISON â?? A state committeeâ??s votes to amend the University of Wisconsin-La Crosseâ??s Growth and Access plan ended in stalemate Tuesday, sending it on as proposed to the state Senate.

Democrats and Republicans on the Joint Committee on Finance each made motions to change the plan, but each drew tie votes along party lines.

So the plan remains as proposed in Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s budget, which supports it.

The fight over tuition reciprocity between Minnesota and Wisconsin has come to a head, with University of Minnesota officials saying that unless the agreement changes they will pull out of the 40-year-old pact in the fall of 2008.

Tens of thousands of students in the two states use the agreement to attend college across state borders without paying nonresident rates. But U officials say the agreement is unfair. Because of the way it is structured and because tuition increases in Minnesota have outstripped those in Wisconsin, Minnesotans now pay $1,200 to $2,700 more to attend U campuses than Wisconsin students do.

MADISON, Wis. â?? Property taxes most likely will go up, and it will cost more to get a driverâ??s license and register your car and boat.

But getting a copy of your birth certificate will be the same, and more schools may have security guards on duty.

And if Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle continues to get his way, the University of Wisconsin will get more money, more children will get health insurance, and smokers will pay more to light up.

University of Wisconsin campuses would be barred from accepting payments from student loan companies in exchange for recommending them to borrowers under a proposal to be considered for approval this week.

The policy aims to reassure the UW system’s students, who took out a record $592.7 million in loans last year, that campus administrators are looking out for their best interests amid a national scandal in the industry. The plan would also guide UW employees and companies on how to avoid unseemly relationships.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) University of Wisconsin-Madison has long been an attractive target for elite schools like Harvard and Stanford looking for top academics. But now other public universities are among the faculty poachers, and school administrators are worried.

Dozens of professors have left in the past two years, and Chancellor John Wiley said a growing number are going to schools that traditionally could not compete with the state’s flagship university. More than 115 professors reported receiving outside offers last year, the most in 20 years and more than double the number from five years ago.

The stateâ??s Joint Committee on Finance is expected to vote today on the University of Wisconsin-

La Crosseâ??s proposed Growth and Access plan.

â??Iâ??m cautiously optimistic,â? said state Rep. Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, whose 95th District includes UW-L. â??I think the plan will go through in full.â?

The plan aims to increase access, quality and diversity at UW-L. It would generate an estimated

The tide appears to finally be turning in favor of the University of Wisconsin System, making the chances of an appropriate budget for the next biennium better than they’ve been in years.

Earlier this year, the UW System fared well in its capital budget requests.

UW-Stevens Point got the go-ahead for several projects, including relocation of the military science program to the Health Enhancement Center and addition to the Maintenance and Materiel Building.