Category: State news

Chancellors in the University of Wisconsin System are publicly jumping into the fray of the state budget debate, encouraging their campus stakeholders to lobby legislators to roll back a proposed freeze on  tax dollars and delays in new flexibilities promised in the last state budget.  

The University of Wisconsin System will also have its tuition frozen by state lawmakers after a controversy erupted over the university?s year-end balance. The proposal to freeze tuition was a bipartisan effort, and Governor Scott Walker recommended paring back his initial proposal to increase funding for the state?s universities. The governor?s administration secretary, in a letter to the legislature?s Joint Finance Committee, said the university system was “more interested in protecting its bank account than in ensuring a quality higher education.”

A sweeping plan to grant UW-Madison more flexibility in how it classifies, recruits, pays and evaluates its 20,000 employees has run into a legislative roadblock just a month before its planned July rollout, leaving administrators and union chiefs with the same question ? now what? ? but different reactions.

Sale of public property: The Joint Finance Committee signed off last week on a proposal to give Gov. Scott Walker broad authority to sell heating plants, highways and other state property without seeking competitive bids. It mitigated the bill somewhat by stipulating that lawmakers must approve any sale and added some limits, but this is still a bad idea. Not asking for competitive bids is a recipe for wasting taxpayer money.

Early in his tenure, University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly said he felt prepared for the challenges the job brought, noting the sharp elbows he developed while working in the State University of New York system.

Dont worry, Badgers sports fans, the Kohl Center is not for sale. But parking ramps and dormitories are among the buildings at the University of Wisconsins flagship campus, and other UW System campuses, that eventually could end up in the hands of private investors under a proposal headed for legislative approval.

The Legislature?s budget committee approved a two-year tuition freeze for the University of Wisconsin System and cut state funding by $152 million from what Gov. Scott Walker had proposed.

MADISON ? When the co-chair of the Legislature?s powerful Committee on Joint Finance says it might be best if you stepped down, you know you and your agency are in for a long, hard day.

The University of Wisconsin System moved one step closer to a tuition freeze for the next two years, in what could be the first in the system?s history, after the Legislature?s budget writing committee approved portions of Gov. Scott Walker?s budget Thursday.

MADISON, Wis. AP ? A key legislative committee voted Thursday to slash the University of Wisconsin Systems budget, venting its anger a few weeks after learning the system raised tuition for six straight years even though its currently sitting on a surplus of $650 million.

Thursday will be a day of reckoning for the beleaguered University of Wisconsin System as the Legislature?s budget-writing committee debates how much money to give public universities in the 2013-?15 state budget.

MADISON ? A broad array of state properties, including prisons, university dormitories, power plants and highways, could be sold to private buyers without going through a public bidding process, under a provision approved by the Legislature?s budget committee on Tuesday.

Madison ? Republicans on the Legislature?s budget committee largely signed off Tuesday on giving Gov. Scott Walker broad authority to sell heating plants, highways and other state property without seeking competitive bids, but stipulated that lawmakers must approve any sale.

A wide-reaching change that would allow the state to sell off properties ranging from prisons and power plants to University of Wisconsin dormitories and state highways is up for approval before the Legislatures budget committee.

During the battle over actions initiated by Gov. Scott Walker in 2011 in response to a $3.6 billion budget deficit, the University of Wisconsin system was sitting on a dirty little secret.

The Walker administration has laid out a plan that would reduce the University of Wisconsin?s (UW?s) reserves by $136 million, partly through a $94 million dollar cut in state funding.

Backpedaling on budget plans for University of Wisconsin campuses might mean more pay freezes or heftier tuition hikes later, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow said Thursday.

Students in the University of Wisconsin System will get a two-year tuition freeze.

The governor has trimmed the sails on the UW?s budget. News that the University of Wisconsin System has accumulated a budget surplus of some $650 million created a furor among Republican legislators, and now the administration of GOP Governor Scott Walker has responded with a revised budget proposal for the UW, which had originally stood to receive a 181 million dollar increase.

MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker submitted a revised budget for the University of Wisconsin System on Wednesday that calls for freezing tuition over the next two years and imposing additional spending cuts in light of news the university has a $650 million surplus.

  Freeze University of Wisconsin UW tuition, but give the university system more state tax funds. Those are the messages from a new poll.

If state lawmakers move to freeze tuition on University of Wisconsin campuses, the public will largely support that plan. That?s according to the latest Marquette University Law School poll, which found 76 percent of those responding support blocking the UW System from increasing tuition over the next two years.

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin?s budget surplus grew by $500 million Thursday, leading to a bipartisan call by state lawmakers and Gov. Scott Walker to put some of the money toward public schools two years after funding was cut by more than $1 billion.

Large reserve funds held at University of Wisconsin System campuses are embarrassing the Republican- controlled state government.

MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker said Monday it?s still unclear how much money originally targeted for the University of Wisconsin System will instead be diverted to pay for deeper tax cuts and to help K-12 schools. Walker said he?s still talking with UW officials about how much money is needed to pay for freezing tuition systemwide while also investing in economic development programs at the university he supports.

Amid calls for a tuition freeze from state lawmakers, financial records found the University of Wisconsin System?s reserve funds are expected to grow $150 million by the end of June.

A growth in out-of-state residents attending public universities is crowding out poor and minority students and making it more difficult for people from those backgrounds to get ahead, a new report argues.

Sounds like a case of academic Freaky Friday: College students push for higher tuition prices, while lawmakers attempt to reverse the trend of rising college costs.

The University of Wisconsin System administration plans to develop a new policy to govern its cash reserves after the state Legislative Fiscal Bureau recently discovered the system held a $1 billion balance in June of last year, according to a system statement.

A tuition surplus makes up about $12 million of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh?s $37 million reserve fund, campus officials said.

?What?s happening to the UW reserve money?? the woman asked. She was concerned about criticism of the University of Wisconsin. ?It seems like they want to attack the UW,? she told attendees at the Mondovi Town Hall Meeting.

It?s time to freeze tuition at UW schools. The same day the University of Wisconsin System president proposed a 2 percent tuition increase, we learned that the system had more than $648 million in cash reserves at the end of the last fiscal year.

If you haven?t heard, the University of Wisconsin System has a surplus. It turns out the university system, whose annual budget of $5.6 billion is about the size of Bermuda?s gross domestic product, has about $650 million in reserve funds. A Legislative Fiscal Bureau report last week revealed these funds, and it was immediately taken up by lawmakers who questioned how that much money could be sitting in reserve at the same time tuition rates have been rising.

A forum on the proposed state budget?s impact on local government Monday night settled into a discussion about the merits of the University of Wisconsin System?s $650 million in reserve funds.

Wisconsin is not the first state to question its universities? books according to Kevin Kiley, a reporter with the online publication Inside Higher Education. Kiley says other states have also assumed they?ve stumbled upon a surplus, then learned otherwise.

WAUKESHA, Wis. ? Gov. Scott Walker began to hedge Thursday on his initial proposal to boost the University of Wisconsin System?s budget by $181 million, saying most of that money may be redirected to pay for a tuition freeze or boost funding for public schools. 

The University of Wisconsin system is under fire from both parties in the state Legislature after a Legislative Fiscal Bureau report showed it had $650 million in reserve ? including $414 million in tuition reserves ? despite annual tuition increases of more than 5 percent.

Reaction to last week?s revelation that the University of Wisconsin System has built a $648 million reserve fund has run the gamut, from hyper-critical to shrugs of indifference.

Governor Scott Walker backs off on his original plan to increase the University of Wisconsin System?s budget by more than $180 million. Backlash from revelations the system has $650 million in surplus has led politicians in both parties to call for a tuition freeze.