Category: State news

MADISON, Wis. (WFRV) — When it comes to higher education the budget cuts aid to UW-Madison by $125 million and another $125 million to the other 25 campuses.

As faculty leaders in research and discovery at UW-Madison, we are writing to share our support for the additional flexibility that Chancellor Martin has been seeking through the New Badger Partnership. 

Gov. Scott Walker plans to phase out a program designed to help students ? especially those from low-income families ? find a path to attend college.

Education and local government bear the brunt of Gov. Scott Walker?s first budget, a reform-minded plan that cuts about $1 billion in state aid and prevents officials from raising taxes to make up the difference.

The University of Wisconsin System would lose $250 million in state aid and face its first major restructuring in 40 years under Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed two-year budget.

MADISON, Wis. — A Dane County judge has ordered Wisconsin officials to open the Capitol to all members of the public during normal business hours….According to court records, Judge Daniel Moeser has issued a temporary restraining order to reopen the Capitol until a trial court can schedule a hearing. The order says the building must be open to the public during business hours and when “governmental matters, such as hearings, listening sessions, or court arguments are being conducted.”

MADISON, Wis. — Universities around the state will be forced to take a big hit, if Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed 2011-2013 budget is enacted. A source who has been briefed on the document said that Walker?s budget proposal calls for the University of Wisconsin System to take a $250 million cut, with half of the money coming from the UW-Madison.

Capitol Police kept more than 1,000 protestors at bay Monday, locking down the statehouse and allowing only a few dozen inside to meet with lawmakers. Officials with the Department of Administration said they closed the Capitol to help with the cleaning of the building and could not open the doors to the public because some protestors inside the rotunda refused to limit their activities to the ground floor.

State Capitol access will be limited again Tuesday. The only entrance open to the public will be the King Street doors, according to a Monday night memo from Assembly Sergeant-at-Arms Anne Tonnon Byers.

“Members of the public wishing to attend scheduled hearings will be given a badge and escorted by my staff to the appropriate committee room,” her memo reads.

Gov. Scott Walker will reveal on Tuesday the full cuts in state programs such as health care for the poor and aid to local governments he says are needed to balance the state?s more than $3 billion budget deficit over the next two years.

At the same time, the state will hit a deadline for doing a refinancing deal that the Republican governor said is key to solving a more immediate budget problem and preventing the layoffs of up to 1,500 state workers. On Monday, Senate Democrats who have blocked that deal by holing up in Illinois put forward their own plan that they said could prevent the layoffs even if the refinancing falls through.

University of Wisconsin leaders will be closely watching the Governor?s budget announcement Tuesday afternoon. Amid speculation Walker will announce a split of UW-Madison from the system’s 25 other schools, some school leaders are voicing their concern.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, quickly becoming a darling of Republicans across the country for his plan to take away most collective bargaining rights from public workers, will get another chance to bolster his national conservative credentials when he unveils the rest of his plan for dealing with the state?s budget woes.

Protests continued in downtown Madison, but those who showed up at the state Capitol on Monday were denied access to the building.

As the governor prepares to reveal his budget on Tuesday, major changes could be in store for schools in the UW-System. The flagship, UW-Madison, may split from the rest.

The proposal to split the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the UW System does not belong in Gov. Scott Walker?s budget bill.

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said the two weeks of protests in the state capital haven?t swayed his resolve to eliminate collective bargaining rights for most public employees.

Leaders of Wisconsin?s largest public workers? unions have capitulated to Walker?s demands for their members to cover more of their pension and health care benefits to help close Wisconsin?s budget deficit. But Walker said Sunday on NBC?s “Meet the Press” that stripping the workers of collective bargaining rights is necessary to give the state the flexibility to get its finances in order.

Along with others, former speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly and current University of WisconsinRegent Tom Loftus has asked Chancellor Biddy Martin to withdraw her support for the proposal to separate the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the rest of the UW System.

Yesterday I got the chance to catch up with a friend from high school who is now a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My friend, Andrew, lives a 10-15 minute walk away from the state capital. Andrew considers himself a conservative, moderate Republican, so I was surprised to hear that he is not supportive of Governor Walker s plan to heal the state s deficit.

The budget-repair bill, which would strip most collective-bargaining rights from 175,000 public-sector workers while imposing immediate benefits concessions, prompted rapid mobilization on the part of unions. Before Walker unveiled his budget-repair bill on Feb. 11, the Teaching Assistants? Association at UW-Madison, along with campus student groups Student Labor Action Coalition and Multicultural Student Coalition, had planned a noon march from the Memorial Union to the Capitol to deliver “I Heart UW” valentines to Walker and urge him not to cut education funding. They were hoping to draw a couple hundred. The budget bill changed everything. More than 1,000 people joined the march and rally, screaming “Spread the love, Stop the hate, Don?t let Walker legislate.” That night, TAA leaders went back to campus and sent their 2,800 UW-Madison members an e-mail urging them to return to the Capitol on Tuesday and testify at the Legislature?s powerful Joint Finance Committee, which had scheduled a hearing on the bill at 10 a.m.

The facts have been overshadowed by rhetoric at the Wisconsin Capitol, where protesters and politicians have been engaged in a tense standoff over the governor?s proposal to strip most public employees of their collective-bargaining rights. Gov. Scott Walker insists the state is broke and must make drastic spending cuts. Walker says his plan is needed to ease a deficit that is projected to hit $137 million by July and $3.6 billion by mid-2013. Not raising taxes and not tapping federal aid leaves Walker with few alternatives other than reducing the money the state gives to schools and local governments or reducing Medicaid to the extent allowed under federal law. Aid to schools and local governments is more than half of the entire state budget. Medical assistance programs are 9 percent, as is funding for the state prison system and money for the University of Wisconsin system. Walker won?t make cuts to the prisons, but he?s expected to make deep reductions in higher education.

Tommy Thompson was about halfway into his breakfast of whole wheat toast and bacon at Kavanaugh?s Esquire Club on North Sherman Avenue on Saturday morning when somebody at the table asked for his take on the crisis at the state Capitol. “I think you never like to see this kind of disruption,” the former governor said. “It possibly could have been handled better. I?m not being critical. I still support Scott Walker and what he does.” He also has an eye on the possibility of UW-Madison splitting from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System. Thompson was in the state Assembly when the system was established and worries about the impact the split might have on other state universities. He said he is not completely versed on the proposal, but added, “At first blush, I?m not sure it?s the right decision.”

The occupation of the Wisconsin Capitol by protesters fighting efforts to strip public workers of union bargaining rights carried on Sunday after police decided not to forcibly remove demonstrators and end a nearly two-week-long sit-in. A cheer went up from the several hundred protesters who had ignored a request from the state agency that oversees the Capitol to leave by 4 p.m. so that the normally immaculate building could get a thorough cleaning. “If you want to leave _ it?s totally cool, because the doors will be open around 8 a.m.” on Monday, said protest coordinator Erika Wolf, 25, who works with the United Council of University of Wisconsin Students.

Protesters who spent the night in Wisconsin?s Capitol vowed Monday to remain as long as necessary to speak out against Gov. Scott Walker?s plan to end most collective bargaining rights and demonstrate against his budget. Walker planned to deliver his two-year budget plan in the state Assembly chamber on Tuesday afternoon. He has said that plan will help make clear why the collective bargaining concessions he is seeking from public employees are necessary to help plug a $3.6 billion shortfall.Walker has said his budget will include about a $1 billion cut in state aids to schools and local governments. He is also expected to propose dramatic changes to how the University of Wisconsin is organized, make cuts to Medicaid and possibly increase fees to help raise money.

No additional demonstrators will be allowed into the state Capitol until those currently in the building comply with police directives. Department of Administration officials say some protesters who refused to leave Sunday night have ignored orders to remain on the ground floor of the Capitol. Until those protesters comply, no other demonstrators will be allowed into the building. Officials say crowd sizes may be adjusted throughout the day to prepare for Gov. Scott Walker?s Tuesday afternoon budget address.

The state Capitol has historically remained open to the people of Wisconsin — officially when the Legislature is in session, and practically when Wisconsinites have wanted to rally, assemble and petition for the redress of grievances.

The legislators who have voted to change long-established rules and approaches have done so for the wrong reasons. They act as fools or political stooges, not as representatives of the people of Wisconsin. And they should be challenged, as they are assaulting the very core of our democratic practice.