Gov. Scott Walker has yet to implement any of his major economic initiatives. Thankfully. Yet the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau announced May 11 that, because of improved tax collection projections, Wisconsin has an extra $636 million for budgeting purposes. That?s a 1.6 percent increase in tax revenue over the next two years.
The University Square Food Court closed indefinitely Tuesday, according to a sign on its door on East Campus Mall.
“In a nutshell, it was not performing as forecast. It never took on the life we intended,” property manager Todd Greenwald told Isthmus. Greenwald could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.
The medical director of the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene says women will likely die of cervical cancer if Gov. Scott Walker?s budget proposal eliminating $266,400 for cervical cancer screening prevails.
“I see at least 1 – 2 high-grade lesions every day during cytologic evaluations,” Dr. Daniel Kurtycz says in prepared remarks to be given Wednesday to the Joint Finance Committee, which will consider Walker?s budget request.
This story appeared first in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper.
Fitchburg city officials say a 383-acre expanse now open for development could change the way people think of Dane County?s business hubs. They are ready to move forward with Nine Springs of Fitchburg ? a plan for a technology campus with housing, stores, restaurants and hotels that could be an express bus ride from Downtown and UW-Madison, built under terms of Fitchburg?s new SmartCode regulations.
Quoted: UW-Madison School of Business associate professor Morris Davis
Technology companies helped create 500 jobs in the Madison area last year and the industry now represents 10.5 percent of the work force, with 31,000 jobs.
Senate Democrats have unveiled a package of tax credits they say are designed to create jobs. Their plan includes 15 health and bioscience positions at the the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Institutes for Discovery. The package has little chance of becoming law.
Elizabeth Warren, the creator and presumptive head of President Barack Obama?s controversial new consumer finance protection agency, has been invited to headline UW-Madison?s annual spring conference on housing and the economy. If she can make it — she?s been invited, and by now must be expected, but hasn?t yet formally agreed — Warren will discuss how her agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will affect the housing industry, according to the agenda for the June 9 event, dubbed “New Partnerships: Government and Real Estate.”
Florida State University President Eric Barron has written an op-ed defending FSU taking $1.5 million from a foundation backed by Charles Koch. A remarkable article in Tuesday?s St. Petersburg Times indicates Florida State made some significant concessions to secure the gift.
The board of directors for Madison-based American Family Insurance decided Tuesday that current chief financial officer and treasurer Dan Schultz will be the company?s new president and chief operating officer.
John Bradley gets around. Bradley, a UW-Madison graduate, is researching what will be the second in a series of next-generation travel books published by Madison-based Modern Overland, a company founded by Bradley in 2009. Bradley decided to turn his passion for travel into a business, and Modern Overland?s first title, “South Africa, Lesotho & Swaziland,” has just been published.
Another faith-based student center at UW-Madison has plans for a major redevelopment project, although this time the result would be less square footage for the student center, not more.
St. Francis House Episcopal Student Center wants to redevelop its property near UW-Madison?s Grainger Hall by selling off part of the site and downsizing itself to make way for a privately owned, 12-story student apartment building. The apartment building would be unconnected to the student center and have no religious orientation, said attorney Bill White, who is representing developer LZ Ventures of Madison.
Public universities across the nation continue to be hit hard by budget woes. And in an effort to retain quality, many institutions are focusing more time and energy on partnering with the private sector and wealthy philanthropists. But as desperate as some are to land these additional dollars, doesn?t a university owe it to its faculty, staff and students to say “no thanks” if too many strings are attached to these funds?
Quoted: Brad Barham, UW-Madison professor of agricultural and applied economics and incoming chair of the University Committee; Ananth Seshadri, chair of UW-Madison’s economics department; Dean of Letters and Science Gary Sandefur. Also mentioned: Richard Avramenko, an assistant professor of political science.
Scott Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs during his four years as governor providing he makes it that far and so he?s got his staff trumpeting every small sign that he may be on his way to that goal. Trouble is, in his zealousness to pat himself on the back at every uptick in the economy, he?s making himself look foolish ? even more so than he?s already done in just four months in office.
Mentioned: Professor emeritus of economics Don Nichols
The city of Madison is considering an ambitious blueprint on how to spread the green movement deeper into the community and broaden its goals.The draft, 73-page Madison Sustainability Plan offers dozens of ideas. They range from the easily-embraced ? implementing clean-up plans to remove all city beaches from the state?s impaired waters list ? to the controversial ? exploring electronically monitored Downtown toll zones with the goal of reducing traffic and emissions. The effort has involved developers, architects, engineers, utilities, the Madison schools, UW-Madison, city officials and others.
….The Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin grant program was part of former Gov. Jim Doyle?s 2008 budget and was designed to connect local food producers with local buyers. It has awarded about $220,000 annually in development grants over the past three years. Recipients in 2010 included the Bayfield Apple Co., Perfect Pasture in Ashland, the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition and Green & Green Distribution in Mineral Point.
Quoted: Steve Deller, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison
But the grant program is on Gov. Scott Walker?s budget chopping block and was not included in his proposed 2011-2013 budget ? a development that some are calling short-sighted and contrary to Walker?s goal of growing the private-sector economy.
Wisconsin?s technical colleges help keep the economy humming. They are responsive to business leaders? needs and provide students with bang for their buck. They?re so popular, in fact, that enrollment is up 40 percent statewide in the last decade.
There?s only one problem. The state is in a budget crisis, and technical colleges are facing cuts just like many other state agencies, communities and schools.
….Jim Barmore of Verona has been providing technical service and management consulting to dairies for more than 25 years. He has a master?s degree in dairy nutrition from UW-Madison and spent a dozen years with Madison-based Vita Plus, a major livestock nutrition provider, and Monsanto before opening his Five-Star Dairy Consulting in 2003. Barmore explains his role as an independent dairy consultant as one of offering the dairy producer information and understanding of the many factors affecting the dairy operation: feed management, monitoring herd records, herd health, manager development, systems development, facilities and cow comfort, and risk management among them.
JANESVILLE ? Diane Pillard likes the idea of merit pay. But even though she?s the dean and campus executive officer at UW-Rock County, she can?t reward employees who excel. At least not with money.
No big surprise here given the state?s hard turn right …. but the Legislature?s Joint Finance Committee has eliminated $5 million in bicycle funding from the 2011-2013 state budget. Siding with Gov. Scott Walker?s budget proposal, the Republican-dominated panel voted 12-4 Wednesday to remove state support for bicycle and pedestrian paths from the $6.4 billion transportation budget.
Fans attending a University of Wisconsin men?s basketball game spend an average of $98.25 while in Madison, and that doesn?t include the purchase price of the tickets. The typical Badger football fan drops $232.53 (excluding tickets) during his or her stay (nearly 76 percent of fans eat in local restaurants, and 11 percent book lodging). Even when not attending games, fans on average purchase $156.27 worth of UW merchandise annually. All told, UW athletics contributes $970 million to the state?s economy, according to a study conducted by NorthStar Economics Inc.
Downtown Madison Inc. has a keen interest in the current debate over the future of UW-Madison. The urban center of the city and the university at its heart have been intimately linked since the founding of Wisconsin. At a recent meeting, DMI?s board of directors expressed unanimous support for Chancellor Biddy Martin?s New Badger Partnership.
BadgerBites, a proposed online food order software system, won the $10,000 top price in the UW-Madison School of Business? G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition on Friday. The product, developed by Alex Wyler, Eric Martell and Matt Howard, would streamline and improve the online food order processing, according to their business plan.
The UW-Madison Athletic Board convened Friday to discuss a recently completed economic impact report and updated academic requirements for UW-Madison football players next year.
While many UW-Madison students and Madison residents began early-morning festivities at the Mifflin Street Block Party, thousands of runners participated in the 30th Annual Crazylegs Classic run Saturday morning.
While the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department continues to draw name recognition for its sports programs, a new study found the body is also a major economic engine in the state.
….the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area — which includes Dane, Iowa and Columbia counties — added just 400 jobs in the past 12 months for a 0.1 percent increase, 76th out of the 100 largest metro areas. The jobs report received little coverage in the Madison media, not surprising given that job creation has been flat here.
Noel Radomski, who heads a UW-Madison think tank, says the region hasn?t had to aggressively pursue a pro-growth strategy because of all the public-sector jobs here. That has allowed policymakers to focus on other issues like social safety nets and environmental regulations, he says.
Noted: At an undergraduate level, less than 20% of Fortune 500 CEOs get their degrees from Ivy League schools (including Ivy League-caliber schools like Stanford). While those numbers go up when graduate degrees are added into the mix (roughly 12% of CEOs have some degree from Harvard alone), the reality is that the University of Wisconsin produces just as many CEOs at the undergraduate level as Harvard.
Wisconsin families may wonder how the state can afford to create programs to boost business growth when the governor and lawmakers argue it is imperative to cut back on almost everything else. The answer is because we can?t afford not to invest in business growth, not only to create the jobs we need but also to bring in the tax revenue to support the government services we want. Wisconsin has come far in creating hotbeds for new-business formation. Atop the list is Dane County, where UW-Madison is spinning off the talent and ideas that are creating one of the Midwest?s largest collections of young biomedical businesses and other technology-related companies.
Physicist, neuroscience entrepreneur and businessman Jon Joseph traded the money and prestige of a flourishing career in corporate America for the opportunity to teach high level calculus, computer science and physics to high school kids. He?s doing his thing in the northern Green County community of New Glarus, teaching at a high school where there were exactly zero Advanced Placement courses less than 15 years ago.
Dear Editor: The danger of the New Badger Partnership can be found in the coded language of University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin. The NBP would literally make the UW ?open for business.?
Nine Madison area applicants are among 21 finalists in the Wisconsin Governor?s Business Plan Contest, and their business proposals range from a new diabetes treatment to wireless Internet access on buses. The 21 finalists, and winners of the UW-Madison Burrill competition, Northeast Wisconsin Business Plan Contest, Marquette University Kohler competition and the BizStarts collegiate competition will all vie for a total of $150,000 in cash and in-kind prizes.
Nine Madison area applicants are among 21 finalists in the Wisconsin Governor?s Business Plan Contest, and their business proposals range from a new diabetes treatment to wireless Internet access on buses.
It?s taken a bit longer than planned but a fast-growing Madison-based solar energy company is finally settling into new digs. On Wednesday, Full Spectrum Solar will celebrate its move to 1240 E. Washington Ave., the former Quality Collision auto body repair shop.
….Founded in 2002, Full Spectrum Solar is owned and operated by Madison natives and UW-Madison engineering alumni, brothers Burke and Mark O’Neal.
If you ask for a business card from Masood Akhtar, be prepared to get a handful. Akhtar wears many hats.
After nearly two years of construction, $95 million in construction costs and the input of thousands of students, the University of Wisconsin finally has its new Union South.
A central Wisconsin economic development agency is taking a stand against Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to split the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus from the larger UW System.
We have an affordable, public version of Stanford right here in Wisconsin. Not only is UW-Madison one of the best universities in the world but, similar to Stanford, it serves as a key economic driver for the region.
If you think Gov. Scott Walker is the devil incarnate, read no further. But Wisconsin is on pace to reach the governor?s goal of 250,000 more jobs in the state over the next four years — not that Walker is doing some magic tricks. The gains are most likely the result of the economic recovery that began in 2010.
It?s here. Today the 21st century incarnation of Union South opens its doors and invites students, faculty and alumni to check out all it has to offer.
The expansion project for new athletic practice facilities at the Kohl Center will now include new luxury seating area, a measure that is hoped to bring in revenue for the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department.
With the merger, Novelos will shift its official headquarters from Newton, Mass., to Madison.There, a team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison radiology professor Jamey Weichert will continue research into three cancer-targeted compounds dubbed Cold, Hot and Light. Administrative offices will be in Massachusetts.
The first episode of the new year kicks off with an interview with Mark Bugher, the director of University Research Park, Tom Still?s commentary on hopes for 2011 and a new stock report.
In his inaugural budget address, Gov. Scott Walker stood before a joint session of the Legislature and delivered the somber news: We?re broke.”
Too many politicians have failed to tell the truth about our financial crisis,” he said. “The facts are clear: Wisconsin is broke and it?s time to start paying our bills today so our kids are not stuck with even bigger bills tomorrow.”
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, a professor of public affairs and applied economics at UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs
The specter of $4 gas prices has Shelly Raddatz, of Excelsior, Minn., re-evaluating her vehicle fuel economy and the frequency of her visits to see daughter Leah at UW-Madison.
Cellular Dynamics International, the company started by UW-Madison stem cell pioneer James Thomson, has raised another $30 million in private financing. Just last year, the company raised more than $40 million; the latest financing brings the total to $100 million since 2004. CDI makes human heart cells for use by medical researchers and drug development companies.
Quoted: Deborah Mitchell, executive director of the Center for Brand and Product Management at the UW-Madison School of Business.
…Walker is mugging Wisconsin?s educational tradition. He has proposed cuts of nearly $1 billion in state aid to local school districts while capping their levels of taxation. Apparently he is supporting the idea of spinning the university off from the state system, largely because he now will include all university employees as part of his ?250,000 new jobs.? The state and municipalities have yet to see the impact of his program on recruiting and retaining good teachers. The outcome is all too apparent.
Life goes on. The grass is sprouting on the trampled grounds at the state Capitol, the Legislature is in recess and the governor wants nothing less than a do-over of the 20th century. Meanwhile, killing the bargaining rights of teachers, providing a one-sided grievance and disciplinary process and reducing their incomes apparently are vital parts of the governor?s plan to open the state for ?business.?
(Stanley Kutler, a UW-Madison professor emeritus. This column first appeared on Truthdig.com.)
I?m guessing most people who heard about the study last week showing UW-Madison generates some $12.4 billion in state economic activity and supports 128,146 jobs annually didn?t exactly smack their foreheads in surprise. Likewise, they probably wouldn?t have done any head-smacking if the numbers were $5 billion or $20 billion, or if the (surprisingly specific) jobs numbers had been a few thousand higher or lower. Massive numbers about huge institutions and the complicated means by which they are arrived at tend to produce a numbing effect on the human brain.
Though its regulatory powers have been watered down over the past few decades, the Public Service Commission is still the body that provides a check on basic telephone rate increases and, among other things, makes sure that people?s heat is not turned off during cold Wisconsin winters because of unpaid utility bills. That?s why some find former state lawmaker Phil Montgomery?s appointment to chair the Public Service Commission hard to swallow.
Quoted: UW-Madison telecommunications professor Barry Orton
A new report says that UW-Madison generates more than $12 billion a year in economic activity in Wisconsin and supports nearly 130,000 jobs across the state. The school?s chancellor says those numbers are a good reason for the campus to have more independence.
MILWAUKEE — Some members of the State Employees Union are warning businesses in Wisconsin to either support collective bargaining for public employees or face a boycott.A letter from Council 24 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees asks businesses to express support by displaying a sign in their window. The letter said failing to support the union will mean a public boycott of the business. It also said that neutral means ?no? to supporting the union.
UW-Madison and affiliated organizations contribute $12.4 billion annually to Wisconsin?s economy, according to a new study, the first of its kind in eight years. The report, conducted by Madison-based NorthStar Economics Inc., found that the university, UW Hospital and Clinics and related groups support 128,146 jobs. The results come as UW-Madison officials seek to affirm the university?s importance to the state in the face of a $125 million budget cut under Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed two-year state budget.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison released a report Wednesday claiming that the campus contributes $12.4 billion to the state economy, as officials argued for flexibility measures in the next state budget to preserve that impact. The NorthStar Economics study also credits the university for creating, directly or indirectly, some 128,000 jobs across the state.
On April 5, voters in Madison and in Dane County will have a chance to begin reclaiming their democratic voice. In 2010, by the barest of majorities, the United States Supreme Court decided that private corporations could spend unlimited and unregulated amounts of their corporate funds to influence American elections. The case, ?Citizens United v. FEC,? was based on the ideas that corporations are just like real people when it comes to having constitutional rights, and that money is the equivalent of speech.
(Michael Olneck is a UW-Madison professor emeritus of educational policy studies)
MADISON ? The University of Wisconsin-Madison released a report Wednesday claiming that the campus contributes $12.4 billion to the state economy, as officials argued for flexibility measures in the next state budget to preserve that impact.
The Design Committee for the Memorial Union Reconstruction met Monday to approve designs and make recommendations to the team of two architectural firms selected for the project.
The Wisconsin Center for Education Products and Services is being established at UW-Madison to help license and market educational products and services created by faculty and staff that cannot be patented but may be copyrighted. The products may include testing programs, educational computer games and statistical processing. The center plans to play a role parallel to that of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which works to license and sell technology developed at UW-Madison.
For decades the theory that farmers are getting old and there are no young people taking over has been a popular subject of discussion presented by so-called ag experts. However, the line of young people waiting to take over the home farm or set out on their own career in farming or agribusiness is long and enthusiastic.
The recent 15th Badger Invitational Holstein heifer sale hosted by the UW-Madison Badger Dairy Club is a showcase of good dairy cattle and the 75 or so students who put the event together.
City Council candidates from four downtown districts worked to distinguish themselves on key neighborhood and city issues, from the city budget to the downtown entertainment district, at a forum Thursday night.
The Chronicle of Higher Education posted a short Q & A with Duke professor Charles Clotfelter, who just published a new book titled “Big-Time Sports in American Universities.” The cover of the book features a packed Camp Randall Stadium on a Badgers football game day.
….In his book, Clotfelter said he tries to explain to readers what role commercial sports play at American universities, and what the costs and benefits associated with big-time athletics are.
