Quoted: UW-Madison economist Andrew Reschovsky.
Tax cut would be at least $300 million over two years
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Category: State news
On Campus: Hearing to examine benefit overpayments, ‘double dipping’ at UW System
Wisconsin State Journal
Tuesday?s public hearing at the State Capitol about mismanagement of $33 million in University of Wisconsin System health and pension funds is actually a twin bill. Also on the agenda: so-called “double dipping” by public employees including thousands in the UW System.
State likely to audit UW payroll, benefits
Wisconsin Radio Networks
A legislative committee is scheduled to hold a hearing today (Tuesday) to discuss mismanagement at the University of Wisconsin payroll and benefit processing. The nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) is being asked to conduct a comprehensive review after an audit released earlier this month found the UW had made over-payments in the last two years for health insurance premiums and retirement benefits totaling $33 million.
Debate intensifies over Internet providers for schools, libraries
Eau Claire Leader-Telegram
A new controversy regarding the future of a nonprofit cooperative that provides high-speed Internet services to most public schools and libraries in Wisconsin stems from an old debate about the public and private sectors competing with each other.
Rep. Nass wants UW’s Michael Morgan out of office
WSAU
MADISON, WI (WSAU) – A state legislator believes a University of Wisconsin senior vice president needs to be fired. Wisconsin Rep. Steve Nass says a recent audit leaves him with no faith in senior vice president for administration and fiscal affairs Michael Morgan.
Deja vu: Taxpayers hit again with UW System waste
Wisconsin Reporter
MADISON ? Sometimes sorry isn?t enough. Ask the legions of Lance Armstrong fans, the same Lance Armstrong who only takes his doping mea culpa to Oprah Winfrey.
Legislators will hold hearing on UW human resources system
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A legislative committee will hold a hearing Tuesday as part of a probe of the University of Wisconsin System?s human resources practices after learning of the universities? overpayments of nearly $33 million for health insurance premiums and retirement benefits.
Walker touts income tax cut, job push in speech
WISC-TV 3
Gov. Scott Walker said during his State of the State speech that hes doubling down on efforts to meet his 2010 campaign promise to create 250,000 jobs over four years.
Legislators want audit of UW benefit, payroll processing after overpayments
Madison.com
The co-chairs of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee are calling for an independent audit of the University of Wisconsin payroll and benefit processing systems after overpayments totaling almost $33 million were found.
Walker and union friends pitch mining, job creation in State of State
Wisconsin Reporter
Earlier in the day, University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Barry Burden said that, politically, Walker has to address the concerns of two groups of people ? the general public who will be voting in 2014 and the conservative GOP base who will largely be the ones choosing a Republican presidential nominee for 2016.
Obamacare makes it harder to fix insurance errors, expert says
Wisconsin Reporter
MADISON ? Don?t hold your breath, Wisconsinites, on recovering all of the $15.4 million the University of Wisconsin System overpaid on health insurance premiums in 2011 and 2012.
Thomas Harden column: ‘What We Pay’ shows UWGB salaries lagging
Green Bay Press-Gazette
What?s your salary? How much do you make? For most Americans, it?s impolite to ask. Many would tell you it?s nobody?s business but their own ? a number known only to the individual, his or her employer, tax and loan professionals, and maybe a few others.
UW System president embarrassed about overpayments
AP
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The president of the University of Wisconsin System says he?s embarrassed by a recent audit finding the system overpaid for health insurance premiums and pension contributions by nearly $33 million over the last two years.
Gov. Scott Walker proposes cutting income taxes
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Gov. Scott Walker pledged Thursday to cut income taxes in the state budget he signs this summer, calling it the best way to spark the economy. But he also said the reduction would be phased in over a number of years.
Audit uncovers UW System overpayments for insurance, pension benefits
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The University of Wisconsin System made $15.4 million in overpayments for health insurance premiums – including $8 million for 924 employees who had been terminated – and miscalculated retirement contributions that resulted in overpayments of another $17.5 million to the state retirement system, according to a financial audit for fiscal 2011-?12 released Thursday by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau.
UW System overpaid health premiums, pensions
AP
The University of Wisconsin System overpaid for health insurance premiums and pension contributions by nearly $33 million over the last two years, including $8 million for more than 900 employees who had already left their jobs, according to a report released Thursday.
Overages send technical college pay soaring past UW salaries
Appleton Post-Crescent
Terry Fleischman earns a base salary of $87,649 as an instructor at Fox Valley Technical College, but last year he pushed his compensation to $163,581 by accumulating overage pay for additional teaching.
Wisconsin governor still hasn’t issued a pardon
The Associated Press
Quoted: Cecelia Klingele, an assistant law professor, and political scientist Charles Franklin at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Election-day registration works here
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
This op-ed was written by Barry C. Burden, David T. Canon, Kenneth R. Mayer and Donald P. Moynihan. They are professors of political science or public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their research on Wisconsin elections can be found at electionadmin.wisc.edu
Should UW pick a business leader for chancellor to jump-start job growth?
Madison.com
With Wisconsin closing out 2012 as one of the worst states for job creation, critics are once again rapping the UW-Madison for failing to turn its research dollars into new companies that could offer jobs.
Badgers football: Gary Andersen to retain assistant Ben Strickland
Madison.com
In what will be music to the ears of the state?s prep football coaches, native son Ben Strickland will be a member of Gary Andersen?s staff at the University of Wisconsin. Strickland, who was elevated to full-time assistant in charge of the secondary prior to Bret Bielema?s final season on the sidelines, is a former Brookfield Central athlete who walked on with the Badgers and eventually became a team captain.
Pommer: Comment hints note of retaliation
Superior Telegram
Assembly Speaker-elect Robin Vos recently warned the University of Wisconsin-Madison budget might be affected after some classes on Bascom Hill were cancelled the day of President Obama?s pre-election rally on campus.
Audit seeks info on UWs new Internet plans
WISC-TV 3
State auditors want the University of Wisconsin System Administration to clarify how it plans to provide Internet services to its schools.
Sinking with old economy: Wisconsin lags in developing 21st-century companies
Capital Times
Wisconsin, we?ve still got a problem. Despite private businesses receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in grants, tax credits and other incentives since the 2007 recession, the state?s economy continues to sputter…The Center on Wisconsin Strategy in its latest “Wisconsin Job Watch” says the state remains down 161,000 jobs since the 2007 recession as well as lacking another 86,500 jobs needed to keep up with population growth since then….”It’s not just that we’re giving out so much money to business, it’s that our job creation remains so much worse than the rest of the nation,” says Laura Dresser, associate director of COWS, a liberal UW-Madison economic think tank.
Nass seeks Camp Randall renovation process review
Wisconsin State Journal
A key legislator is asking state and UW-Madison officials to review the process through which a subcontractor was selected to build a new scoreboard and sound system at Camp Randall Stadium, to see if the jobs should be rebid. Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, chairman of the state Assembly?s Committee on Colleges and Universities, ?is very concerned with the appearance of how this bidding process worked out,? said Mike Mikalsen, Nass? spokesman.
UW System seeks changes to law on Internet access
Racine Journal Times
A new law restricting how the University of Wisconsin System provides Internet access could make things difficult for students and raise costs for taxpayers, school officials told auditors in a report released Tuesday.
Lawmaker calls for review of Camp Randall scoreboard pick
The Oshkosh Northwestern
A key legislator is asking state and University of Wisconsin-Madison officials to review the process through which a subcontractor was selected to build a new scoreboard and sound system at Camp Randall Stadium, to see if the jobs should be rebid.
Act 10 appears to create a wave of double dippers
Wisconsin Reporter
MADISON ? Wisconsin?s controversial Act 10, it appears, created a wave of double-dippers, with many public employees retiring before the law?s implementation only to return to the public sector, according to data from a recent audit.
New manager of Farm Technology Days named
Wisconsin State Journal
A UW-Extension manager with a wealth of experience working with county government was named Monday as the next general manager of Wisconsin Farm Technology Days Inc. Matt Glewen, 56, who has worked for the UW-Extension for the past 32 years, said he is excited to lead an organization that must decide soon whether to continue to hold its show at a different county each year or create a permanent location.
There’s nothing wrong with cautious leadership in higher ed
Inside Higher Education
Noted: Since 2005, I have served as a dean and provost at two regional campuses in the University of Wisconsin System, a time of extraordinary change, disruption, even upheaval, where political leadership has been a significant driver of change, not just in how we fund public colleges and universities but in how we deliver college degrees. These have been tumultuous years for higher education in the state of Wisconsin, with 2011 our annus horribilis, beginning with UW Madison?s move for independence and ending with the UW system intact but redesigned to allow more independence for, and increased competition among, campuses within the system.
Report: Thousands of public employee retirees draw pension, salary simultaneously
Wisconsin State Journal
From substitute teachers to cabinet secretaries, thousands of public employees in Wisconsin who retired in recent years returned to work, allowing them to earn both a paycheck and a state pension, according to a Legislative Audit Bureau report released Friday. And while many employees and employers like the arrangement, the system can be abused, the report found.
Doug Moe: New chapter begins for Karl Schmidt, WPR’s ‘Chapter a Day’ reader
Wisconsin State Journal
Karl Schmidt puts images in people?s heads. His vivid reading of great books across seven decades on public radio has seen to that. The thing is, Schmidt himself occasionally fixes on an image he can?t shake. One involved a longtime listener to the Wisconsin Public Radio “Chapter a Day” program Schmidt has handled off and on, mostly on, since 1941.
Contractor for Camp Randall renovation called ‘unethical’ over scoreboard bid process
Wisconsin State Journal
A contractor hired by the state to manage a $76.8 million renovation of Camp Randall Stadium agreed to accept a higher bid for a new scoreboard over a competing offer that an outside consultant advised was of better quality. The contractor, J.P. Cullen & Sons of Janesville, is a listed subcontractor on the winning bid, for which it stands to receive more than a half-million dollars.
Audit finds thousands of retirees earn paycheck plus pension
WISC-TV 3
A new report found that state agencies and the University of Wisconsin-System rehired 2,783 people who had retired between 2007 and 2011.
Walker: We Might Freeze Or Cap UW Tuition
WPRNews.org
Governor Scott Walker says he?s considering freezing U-W tuition, or putting a cap on the size of any tuition hikes in the U-W system.
Thousands of public employee retirees double-dippers
From school janitors to cabinet secretaries, thousands of public employees in Wisconsin who retired in recent years returned to work, allowing them to earn both a paycheck and a state pension, according to a Legislative Audit Bureau report released Friday. The study found that 2,783 employees of the University of Wisconsin System and state agencies who had retired returned to work between January 2007 and March 2012. In addition, 2,599 retirees from local school districts, cities and counties also were rehired between January 2011 and March 2012, the audit bureau found.
Morna Foy named president of state tech college system
Wisconsin State Journal
The Wisconsin Technical College System has named its next president from within, promoting longtime administrator Morna Foy to the top job overseeing the state?s 16 technical college districts. Foy has been an administrator in the system since 1998. She?s been in her current job since 2005 as executive assistant and vice president of policy and government relations. She also worked in the Wisconsin legislative audit bureau from 1989 to 1998 as a program evaluation supervisor.
State board sanctions 11 more doctors for sick notes
Wisconsin State Journal
The Wisconsin Medical Examining Board on Wednesday sanctioned 11 more doctors for writing questionable sick notes to protesters demonstrating at the Capitol in February 2011. The board reprimanded six doctors, who also took classes in medical record keeping or physical exams as part of their discipline. The board said the doctors provided the notes without adequate documentation. “It appears that the entire sick note writing episode is finally closed,” said Dr. Sheldon Wasserman, chairman of the medical board.
Q&A, video: Walker looks at next steps in education
Appleton Post-Crescent
Gov. Scott Walker is mindful of University of Wisconsin tuition increases that have outpaced the rate of inflation ? and wants to do something about it.
Plain Talk: Massive student debt bad for young people ? and rest of us too
Capital Times
The Institute for One Wisconsin is out to shame us into doing something to fix the nation?s student debt problem. And that it?s a problem is unmistakable. We?re drowning young college graduates in years and years of unconscionable loan payments, and there?s growing evidence that it?s having a profoundly negative impact on the nation?s economy. The institute, which is the research arm of the liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now, has embarked on a statewide campaign to show the people of Wisconsin just how serious and onerous student debt has become.
Health Sense: Advance care planning can ease difficult decisions
Wisconsin State Journal
When patients near the end of life, many doctors say there?s nothing more they can do. But ?there is so much we can do for people at the end of life,? said Dr. Jim Cleary, UW Health?s director of palliative care. Doctors can provide pain relief, comfort care and guidance to families, Cleary said.?For a physician to say, ?There is nothing else I can do,? is really, I think, a neglect of their physician duties.? Cleary?s comments are from ?Consider the Conversation: A Documentary on a Taboo Subject.? The 2011 film by two Wisconsin men has sparked an initiative to expand advance care planning around the state.
Regents approve higher out-of-state enrollment cap
Wisconsin Radio Network
The U-W Board of Regents has signed off on a plan to increase enrollment limits for out-of-state students.
UW regents panel compromises on nonresident cap
AP
MADISON (AP) ? A panel of University of Wisconsin System regents has approved a compromise plan for admitting a higher percentage of out-of-state students.
UW regents propose raising out-of-state enrollment cap
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A slightly higher percentage of students from outside Wisconsin would be allowed to enroll at University of Wisconsin System campuses for the first time in more than 40 years, starting next fall, under a compromise expected to be approved Friday by the UW Board of Regents.
A regents committee Thursday unanimously approved the compromise, raising the nonresident enrollment cap from 25% to 27.5% on a three-year rolling average.
Boosting UW nonresident enrollment sparks debate
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A proposal to increase the percentage of students from outside the state allowed to enroll at University of Wisconsin System campuses is raising concerns about whether fewer Wisconsin students ultimately will have access to the flagship Madison campus.
Regents to vote on out-of-state enrollment rate, HR plan
Daily Cardinal
University of Wisconsin-Madison could admit more out-of-state and international students in upcoming years if the UW Board of Regents approves a proposal at its meetings Thursday and Friday, when the Regents are also scheduled to cast the deciding vote on the Human Resources redesign project.
UW Board of Regents to consider raising cap on out-of-state undergraduates
Wisconsin State Journal
A higher percentage of non-resident students would be allowed to enroll at University of Wisconsin campuses under a proposal being considered this week by the UW System Board of Regents. The plan, which would raise the cap on non-resident undergraduate enrollment from 25 percent to 30 percent over a three-year rolling average, has stirred criticism over whether it would make it harder for Wisconsinites to attend UW-Madison. The cap increase would not apply just to new freshmen but the entire undergraduate student body.
School aid must be available to more, commission says
Badger Herald
Colleges and student advocacy groups across the state showed their support for a financial aid commission?s report that called for ensuring more students get aid.
Allowing hunting in state parks could drive away users, reduce revenues
Capital Times
One recent report from UW-Madison?s Applied Population Lab projects the number of deer hunters in the state could fall to 400,000 by 2030. That?s nearly a 40 percent decline from two decades ago when more than 650,000 Wisconsinites would head out in pursuit of a trophy buck ? or at least a good time at deer camp with the buddies. But the implications are significant and go well beyond the estimated $1.4 billion economic boost and 25,000 jobs hunting provides to the state.
UW finds creative way to get workers back to class
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
It may be a first in the nation: Come next fall, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the two-year UW Colleges will offer a 100% competency-based online degree program for working adults.
Seely on Science: Of old myths and fears and a modern-day wolf hunt
Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin?s first recreational hunt for wolves is nearing an end and as the hunt itself winds down, attention will turn to analysis and to what is, hopefully, a scientific assessment of the season and its impact on the state?s wolf population. Much of that work will focus, appropriately, on population densities in the wake of the hunt and implications for future quotas….Not long after the hunt started, UW-Madison researcher Adrian Treves released a study that confirmed what most suspected ? public attitudes toward the wolf deteriorated in the months and years prior to approval of the hunting season.
Drought continues across Wisconsin
Badger Herald
Despite the October rain level approaching the traditional average, the state?s ongoing drought may have detrimental effects on the state.
On Campus: UW will offer flexible degrees in nursing, other high-demand fields
Wisconsin State Journal
Starting next fall, working adults will be able to earn degrees online, at their own pace, in nursing, diagnostic imaging and information technology from UW-Milwaukee. They?re the first degrees offered under a new University of Wisconsin System effort, announced with Gov. Scott Walker in June, to make college more accessible and affordable to state residents.
Conservative groups create own news outlets to counter alleged liberal media bias
Capital Times
In 1962, Richard Nixon conceded defeat in his race for California governor, bitterly telling reporters that the press “wouldn?t have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore.” In the decades since, the belief that the media is a covert ? and in some cases overt ? advocate of liberal ideology has become deeply ingrained in the conservative consciousness. Right-wing bloggers and talk radio personalities regularly depict mainstream reporters as members of an elite leftist clique, dogged in their determination to bring down Republicans and unwilling to challenge Democrats.
James Baughman, a UW-Madison professor of journalism, says he often struggles to convince conservatives that traditional media reporters are not bent on promoting a political viewpoint.”A lot of them really refuse to believe that reporters can be objective,” he says.
Walker lists budget priorities in Green Bay stop
Green Bay Press-Gazette
Noted: He also voiced support for taking merit-based exams for college credit to eliminate educational waste and ensuring people are taking classes they?re interested in. The governor also noted support for making college credits easier to transfer within the University of Wisconsin System.
Jonathan Pauli: Emails show Walker campaign run on taxpayers? dime
Capital Times
Dear Editor: Almost two years ago Stephan Thompson, the deputy executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin and previous aide to Gov. Scott Walker, filed an open records request. Top-ranking Republicans were infuriated by a UW-Madison history professor?s blog exploring the American Legislative Exchange Council and a subsequent op-ed column in the New York Times critical of Walker. In question was whether professor William Cronon violated UW?s policy by using UW email ?to support the nomination of any person for political office or to influence a vote in any election or referendum.? All in all, the exercise proved futile ? Cronon emerged vindicated and Republican leadership appeared simply vindictive.
Rifkin: Why Scott Walker’s focus on pushing graduates into specific majors is wrong
Inside Higher Education
Having been a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 15 years, I follow the news from the state closely, and was very disappointed to read about Governor Scott Walker?s plan to make significant changes to state funding for education. Governor Walker said a few things about K-12 education and education in the technical college system, but he also said this about how the state should judge the performance of its public universities:
On Wisconsin: In Lake Mills, police chief’s retirement after 22 years caps amazing career
Wisconsin State Journal
(Kathleen) Hansen is one of eight female police chiefs in the state. Those departments are at UW-Madison, Whitewater, Chippewa Falls, Menomonee Falls, South Milwaukee, UW-Stout and Woodville, a village of 1,354 people with a four-person department in St. Croix County…The ranks of women in law enforcement continue to grow, according to Susan Riseling, hired as UW-Madison?s chief in 1991, but children can sometimes interrupt careers or prevent climbs to the upper levels of the profession. “It takes time but it also takes a unique family situation,” Riseling said. “That?s why (Hansen?s) story is so unique. Starting out (with six children) and climbing all the way to the top is pretty remarkable.”
State investment board pays $204 million for Los Angeles student apartment complex
Capital Times
….The Wall Street Journal this past week called the SWIB purchase the most expensive college campus housing purchase on record. It also referenced the American Campus Communities Inc.?s $165 million purchase of an Austin, Texas, student housing property known as ?The Block.? The presence of UW-Madison has led to similar ? though not as large ? high-end complexes for millennial college students here, like Grand Central and Lucky Apartments. Vicki Hearing, spokeswoman for the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, says the pension fund purchased the dormitory in large part because of its value as a rental property.
Wis., Minn. tuition reciprocity stokes rivalry
AP
MILWAUKEE ? The longtime tuition reciprocity agreement between Minnesota and Wisconsin is stoking a cross-border rivalry as the two states compete for a declining number of top collegeprospects.