Outgoing state Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, who is closing up shop at the Capitol next month after 26 years in the Assembly, has another job lined up at UW-Madison, where he?ll teach a graduate-level environmental policy course.
State money is tight. But so are state mandates. That?s why incoming Gov. Scott Walker should accept UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin?s smart bid for greater flexibility. Martin understands the state is facing a more than $3 billion budget shortfall. She gets it that Walker doesn?t want to raise taxes. So she?s diligently preparing for flat or falling aid to University of Wisconsin System schools, including the flagship campus in Madison. Instead of whining about looming cuts like other local officials, Martin is highlighting ways the state can “help us help ourselves.”
Sara Stichert and thousands of other state employees woke up Thursday morning to the news that they would still be working without a contract after the state Senate failed to approve new contracts in a special legislative session.
The Legislature this week failed to pass state employee contracts that run up through July of next year, leaving the task to the new Republican majority. Those contracts are already 18 months overdue, and the outcome of the extraordinary session could lead to even longer delays.
Dear Editor: It is immensely disappointing to see that UW Health and Meriter Hospital have given up so easily on the women of our state. They made a commitment in January 2009 to provide second-trimester abortions when necessary, and now they have revoked it, leaving a huge void in the health care system for women all across our state.
Wisconsin lawmakers are outraged at one of their own following a failed fight to pass new contracts for thousands of state workers.
State Assembly Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said he believes the 2 percent salary increase recommended for University of Wisconsin System staff and faculty has a slim chance of survival in the governor?s proposed budget.
Labor unions representing tens of thousands of state workers must start negotiations from a blank slate after lawmakers failed to pass more than a dozen contracts in special session.
The day after state labor contracts dramatically failed in the state Legislature, workers and lawmakers are processing what happened.
The Legislature this week failed to pass state employee contracts that run up through July of next year, leaving the task to the new Republican majority. Those contracts are already 18 months overdue, and the outcome of the extraordinary session could lead to even longer delays.
Catching up on a couple higher education-related items …
….The race is on for faculty across the UW System to join unions. With final exams and the end of the fall semester upon us, it appears it’ll be February before elections will be held.
Of course, with the new Republican leadership coming into power in just weeks, who knows what the future holds. Gov. Jim Doyle gave university faculty and academic staff the right to form unions in the summer of 2009, when he signed his 2009-11 state budget. How quickly this right can be wiped away remains to be seen.
Collective bargaining issues also remain an important topic to academic staff working across the UW System. However, there remains no indication most faculty or academic staff on the UW-Madison campus are interested in forming unions.
A new report shows the air quality at bars and restaurants that had been found to have unhealthy air has improved 92 percent since Wisconsin enacted a smoking ban statewide more than five months ago, according to state officials.
The Department of Health Services joined the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center in looking at the air quality of 200 bars and restaurants before the smoking ban and after.
Stunned Democrats stripped Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker of his leadership position after he abruptly turned on them and voted against new contracts for state workers.
In a special lame duck session to vote on over a dozen new contracts for state workers, Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker throws a curve ball voting against the first labor contract, then he?s stripped of his leadership post.
Four more University of Wisconsin campuses have filed petitions with the state to unionize almost 1,200 faculty and staff with the American Federation of Labor. More than two-thirds of educators at the respective campuses of UW-La Crosse, Stevens Point, Stout and River Falls have signed on to petition the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission to schedule union elections.
Wisconsin Democrats failed to pass new contracts for state workers after their leader in the Senate turned against his party and voted against the deals Wednesday night.
After clearing the Assembly earlier in the evening, contracts for state workers seemed ready to pass their final test in the Senate Wednesday night. Then Majority Leader Russ Decker (D-Wausau) shocked fellow Democrats by voting against the first of the two-year agreements.
Like any 82-year-old, the Memorial Union is beginning to show its age. Wild nights, keg parties, and concerts with the likes of Harry Belafonte and Joan Baez have caused the student union to sag and fade. Now it?s ready for a nip here, a tuck there.The state of Wisconsin earmarked $52 million to renovate the building, specifically the wing that holds the Union Theater.
Despite earlier optimism from U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl?s office, Louis Butler?s nomination to the federal bench may be dead in the water, according to the Politico. The website today says that Butler is among four of President Barack Obama?s judicial picks that that would be thrown under the bus to pave the way for candidates Republicans see as less liberal.
“The War at Home,” an Oscar-nominated documentary about Madison during the Vietnam War, was released in 1979. The film depicted violent protests and a famous and fatal campus bombing. Today, the title feels relevant again, as the Republicans who are poised to run state government seem to despise Madison ? and all it represents ? in ways that border on the pathological.
When Gov. Jim Doyle announced in July that a high-speed rail line from Milwaukee would stop in Madison near the Monona Terrace Convention Center, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz saw vast potential for downtown.
….Susan Schmitz of Downtown Madison Inc. says her group of downtown business owners saw the rail station as a major boon for bringing in new customers, adding that the events of recent weeks have been disheartening to those business owners. Moreover, she says, the rail line would have connected Madison businesses and institutions, such as the university’s Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery, to the global economy.
“That’s such an amazing place and that’s going to be an attraction to people all over the world,” she says. “How are they going to get here and move around? Not everyone is going to rent a car. We need to think about being connected to the world.”
If you?re a state employee, just how bad are these next few years going to be? It appears they might be not only bad, but certifiably terrible.
Gov.-elect Scott Walker and the horde of Republicans who will shortly take over the state Legislature have made it crystal clear that they?re expecting government workers to pay a major price for the mess that governors, legislators and the captains of the financial industry have created over the past several years. And if that means dismantling the public employee unions, so be it.
The effort to balance the state budget on the backs of public employees will certainly involve some changes to pension contributions. Gov.-elect Scott Walker has even talked about having state employees pay 50 percent of the contributions to their retirement plan. Right now, state, UW and local government workers including teachers pay nothing, with the entire contribution picked up by the “employer” aka “the taxpayers.”
Unfortunately, several newspapers around the state in their effort to back reasonable changes to the retirement system are getting the numbers wrong, saying workers would pick up only 5 percent of their pension contributions.
Four more University of Wisconsin campuses have filed petitions with the state to unionize almost 1200 faculty and staff with the American Federation of Labor. Mike Simonson reports.
The battle over the controversial contracts for state employees has taken a turn in Madison.
Frustrated state workers are calling on lawmakers to approve new contracts.
The future of state employee union contracts remains uncertain, but workers from around the state gathered at the Capitol Tuesday morning to call for lawmakers to vote on the agreements.
Governor-elect Scott Walker has offered some tough talk for state employee unions, recently saying he plans to push for major concessions in benefits and is open to decertification if unions are not willing to make deals.
On Friday, the Board of Regents voted to request a 2 percent pay increase for faculty and academic staff at all UW System institutions, at the behest of UW President Kevin Reilly. This will be a part of UW?s budget request to the Legislature.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison didn?t break any state laws by waiting more than a month to notify some 60,000 former students, faculty and staff that a security breach compromised their Social Security numbers, a regulatory specialist in the state Office of Privacy Protection said Monday.
UW Health officials said Monday they are no longer looking for a site in Madison to perform second-trimester abortions, handing anti-abortion activists a victory in a nearly two-year battle over the controversial procedure.
The University of Wisconsin is widely considered one of the state?s most valuable assets. But when adjusted for inflation, funding for the UW system has been in decline for the last decade. But Republican lawmakers who will lead the next session of the legislature are promising to push for funding cuts to the UW as well as caps on tuition and fee increases. (Audio.)
With Gov.-elect Scott Walker already having axed high-speed rail and recommending against a biofuel boiler at the UW-Madison Charter Street Heating Plant, Wisconsin conservationists are bracing for what they fear will be an attack on environmental protections during this upcoming legislative session.
Incoming Gov. Scott Walker has praised a Wisconsin Economic Summit report titled “Be Bold – The Wisconsin Prosperity Strategy.” Among its many smart recommendations, “Be Bold” calls for helping University of Wisconsin System schools speed research and patents into start-up companies.
The largest state employees union has approved a new contract, despite calls from Gov.-elect Scott Walker to hold off on any new contracts until he takes office in January.
Faculty and staff in the University of Wisconsin System would receive a two-percent pay hike during each of the next two years, under a proposal unanimously approved Friday by the Board of Regents at a meeting in Madison.
Like so many other issues, Chancellor Martin?s new Badger Partnership proposal all boils down to one thing: Money. Or, rather, a lack thereof. Over the past 10 years, the amount of UW Madison?s budget coming from the state has declined at least 10 percentage points. That translates to millions of dollars. Now throw in multiple years of economic woes and the overwhelming election of state government officials who do not place higher education funding high on their priority list and you have the perfect context for administrative turmoil and uncertainty about the future. Whatever happens, one thing is for sure: Tuition is going to increase. In an attempt purported to minimize that increase, Biddy has proposed the Badger Partnership, which would partially sever this great institution from the state. In almost any other context, this plan would have virtually no chance of being adopted. However, given the current environment, it could very well represent the best hope for the university.
Wisconsin officially lost its high-speed rail money following an announcement by the U.S. Department of Transportation Thursday.
A University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents committee approved a recommendation for a 2 percent pay increase for UW System employees during a meeting on Thursday.
Wisconsin should pay Robert Lee Stinson $115,000 for sending the ?soft-spoken young man? to prison for 23 years for a murder he didn?t commit, Stinson?s attorney told a state claims board Thursday. The only evidence tying Stinson to the murder were bitemarks on Cychosz?s body that the state?s experts said came from Stinson, but a panel of four experts assembled by the Wisconsin Innocence Project demonstrated that the marks found on the 63-year-old woman could not have come from Stinson. Stinson also is seeking $14,000 to repay the UW-Madison-based Innocence Project for the 200 hours it spent to help free him.
Stop me if you?ve heard this one before. The University of Wisconsin System argues its faculty and staff are in desperate need of pay raises in each of the next two years just so these in-demand folks can keep from falling further behind those at peer institutions.
Fiscal conservatives reflexively howl that those within the UW System simply don?t understand the magnitude of the budgetary crisis facing Wisconsin and are out of touch for wanting more when everyone else is trying to make do with less.
….Maybe it’s not an either/or proposition, but right now the million-dollar question appears to be: What’s a greater threat to the future of Wisconsin …
Ballooning budget deficits or a less competitive University of Wisconsin System?
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin took two trips to China this year, in part to play “catch-up” to other universities that had already established strong relationships with the growing superpower, she said. “We?re there to elevate the brand, not only of the university, but also of the state of Wisconsin itself,” Martin told the UW Board of Regents Thursday, during a presentation on UW-Madison?s connection to China. More so than other colleges, Martin said she wants the university?s relationship with China to extend beyond academic collaborations to include community and economic development. She wants to bring the Wisconsin Idea ? that the university?s borders extend beyond the classroom ? to China.
University of Wisconsin faculty and staff should receive a 2 percent pay raise in each of the next two years, a Board of Regents committee recommended Thursday, even though the incoming Republican governor has called on the school to do more with less and a key lawmaker has called for no increases. That decision by the regents? business committee will likely be approved by the full board on Friday, but ultimately it?s up to the state Legislature to decide how much money is available to the university for salaries. A 2 percent increase in pay costs about $19 million a year, which comes both from tuition and state taxpayer money. The state faces a two-year $3.3 billion budget shortfall.
A University of Wisconsin board of regents committee has approved a request for 2 percent pay raises for UW faculty and staff Thursday.
University of Wisconsin faculty and staff should receive a 2 percent pay raise in each of the next two years, a Board of Regents committee recommended Thursday, even though the incoming Republican governor has called on the school to do more with less and a key lawmaker has called for no increases.
Governor-elect Scott Walker is talking tough – even talking about essentially abolishing public unions. One thing is sure: State workers should pay more for their benefits.
Governor-elect Scott Walker?s sudden talk about decertifying state employee unions is raising concerns among Democratic leaders in the Legislature.
Looking at the headlines today, I wondered how many people were as taken aback by Scott Walker?s threats against public sector unions as I was. Does Walker?s apparent confidence on the issue suggest that he doesn?t anticipate any meaningful political backlash?
Gov.-elect Scott Walker has tried at every turn to get the administration of outgoing Gov. Jim Doyle to put government on hold until January.
….Walker and his fellow Republicans are even arguing that the negotiation of contracts with state workers — which the governor and his aides are required by law to engage in with good faith — should halt until they take charge in January.
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin and UW-La Crosse political science professor Joe Heim
Governor-elect Scott Walker raised the possibility of essentially abolishing state employee unions on Tuesday as one option to control rising employee benefits costs and eliminate the state?s budget deficit.
When it comes to addressing the state?s huge deficit, everything is on the table. That was the message from Governor-elect Scott Walker during an appearance Tuesday at the Milwaukee Press Club. Walker will present his budget for the next state biennium in a few months, and WUWM?s Erin Toner was on hand when he outlined his ideas.
Governor-elect Scott Walker is raising the possibility of decertifying state employee unions. In remarks Tuesday at the Milwaukee Press Club, the governor-elect sent the clearest message yet that he intends to take on state employee unions.
Told you so. Two months ago, I panned a visit by President Obama to the UW-Madison campus as an overly produced and scripted piece of partisan hoo-ha. Now comes word that the Democratic pep rally ? which, incidentally, doesn?t appear to have done much to elect Democrats ? was ridiculously expensive. Not just for the Democratic National Committee, but for us.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly is asking that roughly 20,000 university faculty and staff receive a 2 percent pay increase each of the next two years despite the state facing a roughly $3 billion budget shortfall. The request made public Monday comes after the governor and Legislature last year didn?t approve any salary increases for UW employees and ordered them to take 16 unpaid furlough days, which equates to a 3 percent pay cut. Regents had approved a 2.5 percent increase over that two-year period that ends July 1. The new recommendation, covering the two-year period starting July 1, will be considered by the Board of Regents at meetings Thursday and Friday.
Enrollment at the University of Wisconsin?s 26 campuses across the state this fall is about 1.6 percent higher than a year ago.
With official word coming Sunday that the Wisconsin Badgers are headed to the Rose Bowl, Doug Walters can now seek out more official memorabilia — and maybe even a trip to Pasadena, Calif.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly is asking that roughly 20,000 university faculty and staff receive a 2 percent pay increase each of the next two years despite the state facing a roughly $3 billion budget shortfall.
MADISON, Wis. — Enrollment at the University of Wisconsin?s 26 campuses across the state this fall is about 1.6 percent higher than a year ago, according to school officials. Preliminary figures released Monday by the university show there are nearly 182,000 students enrolled at the campuses, an all-time high.
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin President Kevin Reilly is asking that roughly 20,000 university faculty and staff receive a 2 percent pay increase each of the next two years. The request made public Monday comes after the governor and Legislature last year didn?t approve any salary increases for UW employees and ordered them to take 16 unpaid furlough days, which equates to a 3 percentage point pay cut.
The Environmental Protection Agency informed the state Thursday it will investigate 15 of Wisconsin?s power plants, including three in Madison and nine on UW campuses.
