Category: State news

David Carley, once one of the state’s most prominent housing and urban property developers and twice a candidate for Wisconsin governor, died early this morning at his home in Charlottesville, Va., at the age of 80.

….In addition to his business and an interest in state politics, Carley served as president of Milwaukee’s Medical College of Wisconsin, was a University of Wisconsin regent and headed then-Gov. Gaylord Nelson’s Wisconsin Department of Resource Development. At one point he was said to be on the short list for the presidency of the University of Wisconsin System.

….our state will continue its downward spiral and constant budget crises if we don’t make up our minds to stop doing business as usual.

We all should be ashamed that we’re among the leaders in growing our prison population, but we can’t afford to support our public universities.

University of Wisconsin faculty and staff would be allowed to form unions under a proposal passed by a legislative committee today.

The proposal would affect more than 17,000 UW employees who currently do not have the right to unionize. The legislation must also pass the state Assembly and Senate.

A new report Monday said the state government’s three-year budget deficit is slightly worse than the $6.5â??billion estimated by Gov. Jim Doyle last week.

Eleven weeks after Congress settled on a stimulus package that provided $135 billion to limit layoffs in state governments, many states are finding that the funds are not enough and are moving to lay off thousands of public employees.

Two weeks ago the state of Washington settled on a budget that will mean 1,000 layoffs at public colleges and several times that many in elementary and high schools.

Gov. Jim Doyle said Thursday that up to 1,100 state workers could be laid off to deal with an ever-growing state budget shortfall.

The governor also said Thursday that most state workers will have to take 16 unpaid days of leave over the next two years starting in July.

University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly said he has no hard numbers on how universities will be affected by Gov. Jim Doyle’s announcement Thursday that the state’s budget deficit had exploded by an additional $1.5 billion.

Still, he expects some kind of impact on the UW System.

“I certainly can’t imagine we could be totally exempt from it,” he said at the Board of Regents meeting Thursday in Milwaukee.

Gov. Jim Doyle said Thursday that the budget deficit has exploded to up to $6.5 billion – a historic gap he wants fixed by laying off up to 1,100 employees, furloughing non-emergency workers eight days a year, rescinding 2% pay raises and making new cuts in aid to schools and local governments.

Doyle said the $5 billion deficit he and lawmakers faced in March has soared because tax collections are running far below estimates. The potential $6.5 billion gap will occur over a three-year period ending June 30, 2011.

“We are facing tougher choices than ever about what level of state services we can sustain at a time when people need them most,” Doyle said. “I am fighting to protect the middle class, education, public safety and health care.”

Five members of the Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals staged a demonstration during the Board of Regents meeting Thursday to protest Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s cancellation of a planned 2% pay raise for state employees, including UW faculty and staff.

The 2% raise was scheduled for state employees as part of Doyleâ??s 2007-â??09 budget.

The Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals represents some of the faculty and staff at UW campuses.

State workers will have to shoulder furloughs, up to 1,100 layoffs and a rollback of expected raises to fix an additional budget shortfall of $1.5 billion, Gov. Jim Doyle said Thursday. But the Democratic governor said he wouldnâ??t propose more tax hikes.

â??Our state employees are people who have dedicated much of their lives to public service and to them we owe our gratitude,â? Doyle said at a Capitol news conference today. â??The harsh sacrifices they now face are part of the effect of this national economic downturn.â?

Extreme cuts, layoffs, and furloughs are needed to fix the overexpanding budget hole.

Declining revenues could add another 1.5 billion dollar gap to the current 5 billion dollar deficit and, as a result, Governor Jim Doyle says up to 11-hundred state employees could be laid off. Doyle also proposes 16 days of furloughs for all state workers over the next two years.

Wisconsinâ??s $5.9 billion state budget shortfall is projected to increase, and the stateâ??s general fund is expected to see a major cash flow shortage in the coming months, officials reported Tuesday.

The stateâ??s financial shortfall could grow by $1 billion or even more over the next two years, lawmakers said Tuesday.

Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, a member of the Legislatureâ??s budget committee, said that a worsening economy and falling tax collections could add as much as a $1.2 billion to a projected state budget deficit that was already nearly $6 billion earlier this year.

A growing budget shortfall could lead to everything from higher taxes to furloughs or layoffs of state workers or cuts to programs such as education and health care.

A 20-year-old Van Dyne man allegedly was mugged by three men early Sunday morning while walking near State and Langdon streets, Madison police reported.

The victim was taken to a local hospital with head cuts and facial bruising.

One in seven children in Wisconsin and nearly 11% of the state’s population – more than a half-million people – lived in poverty in 2007, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison report released Monday

Gov. Jim Doyle on Thursday declared a public health emergency in Wisconsin after two new probable cases of swine flu were reported in the state.

The two people affected are young adults in Ozaukee and Sheboygan counties, said Seth Foldy, administrator of the state Division of Public Health, who joined Doyle at a news conference in Madison.

Three probable cases of swine flu were identified in Wisconsin on Wednesday, including two in Milwaukee, prompting officials to close four city schools indefinitely as global health authorities warned that the virus could soon become a pandemic.

There was optimism Wednesday that there could be a day in the future when all Racine high school graduates could get free college tuition.

Representatives from three cities and a University of Wisconsin-Madison think tank spoke Wednesday evening at the Wingspread Conference Center about their experiences with free college tuition programs.

UW-Madison faculty members and students spoke in favor of domestic partner benefits at a town hall meeting Tuesday in the Red Gym.

It’s a day where we plant a tree, maybe even hug one.

We can thank Gaylord Nelson for Earth Day, slated again this year on Wednesday. Wisconsin called him ‘Governor’ and ‘Senator.’ Tia Nelson calls him ‘Papa.’

“He used to follow me around the house, and turn off light switches and lecture me on why that was important, long before people were worrying about energy independence and climate change,” she said during an interview earlier this month at her Madison area home.

A Dane County Judge will rule soon in a lawsuit challenging a fund the Governor and legislature created to retain University of Wisconsin faculty.

The lawsuit goes after administrators at the U-W Platteville for the way they divvied up their share of the University’s new faculty recruitment and retention fund. The Governor and legislature created the $10-million fund in 2007, saying it would help campuses hang on to faculty in high-demand fields.

U-W Platteville Foreign Languages Professor Ray Spoto is a past president of the Association of University Professionals. Spoto says he thinks the Governor had good intentions when he created the fund. But in practice, Spoto says it’s been doled out arbitrarily, without faculty input. Spoto says that’s unfair, and it drives down the morale of professors who don’t get a share. (Third item.)

Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposal to create a statewide domestic partner registry for same-sex couples would be unique in the nation if it becomes law and survives an expected legal challenge, experts and advocates said.

That’s because no state that both bans gay marriage and prohibits other legal recognition of same-sex relationships – as Wisconsin does – allows domestic partnerships or civil unions.

“History looks kindly on those who go first and Wisconsin should go for it,” said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, a gay-rights group that promotes gay marriage.

Advocates of lifting the ban on same-sex marriage in Wisconsin say while recent victories in Iowa and Vermont are welcome signs of progress, they donâ??t see them spurring a movement here to overturn the Badger Stateâ??s 2-year-old constitutional amendment.

Advocates and legislators who spoke to WisPolitics said there isn’t currently a push to introduce a ballot measure to overturn the ban. The earliest that could happen would be 2011 because the bill would have to pass two successive legislatures before going to voters. Total Dem control of the statehouse gives the advocates a window for strong action, political observers say.

Dear International Olympic Committee members:

We hope you have enjoyed your visit to Chicago, which would make a spectacular site for the 2016 summer games.

Please give the Windy City high consideration. And please know that Illinois’ neighbors to the north are very supportive and anxious to lend a hand.

Gov. Jim Doyle testified before the International Olympic Committee Ev-aluation Commission Tues-day to express his support for Chicagoâ??s bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle lobbied on Monday for Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Games and its plan to hold cycling events in his state.
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Doyle said he told the International Olympic Committee inspection team that Wisconsin was the ideal location for the cycling competition. He cited Wisconsin’s well-regarded bike trails, high percentage of bicycle riders and the major bike manufacturers headquartered in the state, including Trek Bicycle Corp. of Waterloo.

“We have a great bicycle racing culture in the state,” Doyle told reporters on a conference call. “It really is a very good fit.”

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle is in Chicago to support the city’s bid for the 2016 Summer Games — and the plan for his state to host cycling.

A key part of the bid is how compact the games will be. Doyle said he told the International Olympic Committee inspection team that by 2016 he expects a high-speed rail system to link Chicago to Milwaukee and Madison, the site of the cycling venue. He said a trip from Chicago to Madison would take about two hours