Critics of the domestic-partner benefits proposal in Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s budget are challenging its constitutionality in light of the 2006 constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal has state traffic forecaster William Gavinski thinking about retirement.
Augustine Tatus, a children and families policy analyst, wonders how he’ll keep up with rising housing, utility and food costs.
And revenue agent Wayne Mertens foresees fewer salaried state workers and more private contractors.
“Tears, harm and fear to sum it up,” Mertens said of state workers’ reaction to Doyle’s budget. “And no faith in the governor or his party that usually promotes workers.”
Large parts of the governor’s budget proposal deserve to be enacted, but this is a work in progress, in need of both additions and deletions. And, yes, think shared sacrifice.
No one knows for sure how much each state will eventually receive under the $787â??billion economic stimulus plan. But Wisconsin could expect to get at least $9.2â??billion, according to an estimate by the Center for American Progress.
Gov. Jim Doyle said his budget proposal to allow domestic partner registrations in Wisconsin wouldn’t establish relationships that resemble marriage but would simply give same-sex couples some basic legal protections.
“These are pretty common-sense rights that would come to people on the registry,” Doyle said. “They’re just a way we can be a little more decent.”
Nonetheless, some say Doyle’s plan would create a legal status that approximates marriage – something that’s not allowed under a constitutional amendment approved by 59% of Wisconsin voters in 2006.
Same-sex couples could form domestic partnerships and receive dozens of the same legal benefits as married people under a proposal by Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle.
Supporters say it’s a step forward for gay and lesbian couples who would get the right to visit one another in hospitals, make each other’s end-of-life decisions and inherit their partner’s homes and cars.
But critics question whether the plan, which Doyle included in his two-year state budget proposal, conflicts with a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. One conservative group promised a lawsuit if it is approved.
Nearly 40,000 Wisconsin college students would get enough financial aid to offset tuition increases during the next two years under Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal.
Doyle promised that University of Wisconsin System tuition increases would be moderate and in line with recent hikes of 5.5 percent the past two years. But he said all students from families with the state’s median income of $60,000 or less would be protected from the increases.
Governor Doyle says a proposal to create a statewide domestic partner registry would not violate Wisconsin’s Constitution.
A provision in the proposed state budget would allow same-sex couples to register as domestic partners at the county level. The budget language says registered domestic partners would be extended certain dependent or survivor benefits for employee benefits, health and mental health and after-death decision making, probate matters, property matters, and motor vehicle titles.
Governor Jim Doyle says it would give legal rights to couples who are often lifelong partners. He says they deserve to have more control over decisions that could impact the life of a person they love.
In his budget plan, Governor Jim Doyle promises to protect education.
“We’re off to a good start, that all students from Wisconsin no matter where they go to school can look forward to some help.”
Rolf Wegenke Ph.D., President/CEO of Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (WAICU), says he’s pleased with the proposed 3% increase in the student grant fund for the state’s private colleges.
A joint letter written by representatives of the three sectors of Wisconsin upper level education may have proved effective when Gov. Jim Doyle announced an increase in financial aid for each division Tuesday.
Gov. Jim Doyle on Thursday signed into law a fast-tracked bill designed to help the state start to solve its $5.7 billion budget shortfall.
The measure Doyle signed Thursday raises a host of taxes on everything from large multistate corporations to Internet downloads, cuts government spending and also allocates $300 million in federal stimulus money for roads projects.
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse will likely cut $5 million from its budget in the next two years.
UW-Lâ??s administration had been planning for cuts anywhere from $2 million to $6 million.
UW-La Crosse senior Nicole Holden takes notes during her Program Planning in Recreation class Wednesday at Wimberly Hall. UW-la Crosse is expected to cut $5 million of their budget over the next two years but aims to preserve a quality classroom experience when doing so. PETER THOMSON photo
â??It is like going to the doctor when you have a problem,â? said UW-L Chancellor Joe Gow. â??You hope itâ??s not as bad as it might be â?? our problem is: It is as bad as it might be.â?
Gow said while he canâ??t rule out staffing cuts, he hopes enough savings can be found elsewhere.
Last Friday, Gov. Jim Doyle announced the Charter Street Heating Plant will convert from burning coal to biomass by 2012. The plant is run by UW-Madison and is responsible for the heating and cooling of the UW campus.
Governor Jim Doyleâ??s inclusion of tax increases and non-fiscal related policies in the budget introduced Tuesday is drawing criticism from Republican lawmakers.
The University of Wisconsin System could face a combined budget cut of up to $174 million under Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s proposed 2009-11 budget, which would lead to a possible 5 to 6 percent tuition hike for students and cutbacks across the system.
Same-sex couples could form domestic partnerships and receive some of the same benefits as married people under Gov. Jim Doyle’s new budget plan.
In his budget address Tuesday night, Doyle made mention of the plan that could make domestic partner benefits a reality for state workers in Wisconsin.
Partners would have a right to make hospital visits and end-of-life decisions and inherit property. Public employees would be able to add partners to their health insurance coverage.
Quoted: Andy Reschovsky, a UW-Madison economist.
The Fisher family of Sheboygan calls itself a middle-class family who makes ends meet after picking up a third job â?? but now they’re staring at a $100,000 college tuition bill during the next four years.
Chelsea Fisher, 17, will graduate from Sheboygan South High School this spring and plans to attend Marian University in Fond du Lac, where tuition this year runs more than $20,000.
Governor Doyle’s biennial budget proposal contained some big numbers; $2.2 billion in cuts to state services. $2.1 billion in federal stimulus money. $1.4 billion in new taxes, including a 1% increase on the highest earners.
But one of the more controversial proposals would extend legal rights and benefits to gay couples in Wisconsin.
In November of 2006, 1.1 million Wisconsinites voted to give Jim Doyle a second term as Wisconsin governor. That same night, 1.2 million people approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and anything substantially similar.
President Obama ran on the coattails of the buzzword â??change.â? After unveiling his two-year budget plan for Wisconsin, Gov. Jim Doyle is pushing his budget on the tagline of â??sacrifice.â?
Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s 2009-11 budget proposal unveiled Tuesday calls for sacrifices from taxpayers and smokers while attempting to protect education in the midst of the largest cuts the state has ever had to make.
President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law Tuesday, dedicating a major portion of the budget to the promotion of higher education.
Gov. Jim Doyle addressed the importance of health care, education, budget cuts and the federal stimulus package Tuesday night during his budget address.
The new state budget repair bill will help tenants in apartment buildings facing foreclosure and deliver $200,000 to the financially strapped Tenant Resource Center in Madison.
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, who helped craft the legislation, said the bill protects tenants who might lose housing in the economic downturn and that the TRC, an established nonprofit working on tenant issues, was the logical agency to handle toll-free calls and do education and outreach.
Vowing that “everyone is going to have to share in the sacrifice,” Gov. Jim Doyle proposed increasing taxes on smokers and the wealthy, holding school and university spending by the state to modest increases and cutting dozens of state offices to close a more than $5.7 billion budget hole.
Doyle on Tuesday laid out a two-year $62.7 billion spending plan that he said keeps education, health care and middle-class families from being swamped by the recession.
Wisconsin’s cigarette taxes would be the third-highest in the country, smoking would be banned in workplaces statewide, and big oil company profits would be taxed under the budget Gov. Jim Doyle presented Tuesday night.
No state employees would be laid off or forced to take unpaid furloughs, and there would be no general sales or income tax increases. However, a new higher income tax bracket would be created for 1 percent of families who earn more than $300,000, and taxes on capital gains would increase.
Facing a $5.7 billion budget shortfall, Gov. Jim Doyle offered his solutions to the fiscal crunch on Tuesday night by focusing on a mixture of tax increases, spending cuts and federal money.
The budget that Doyle presented proposes to make the state’s cigarette taxes rise to the third highest in the country, bans smoking from workplaces statewide and taxes big oil company profits. The budget presented will not lay off any state employees or force them to take unpaid furloughs. There also would be no general sales or income tax increases.
University of Wisconsin System students might face bigger classes and fewer course offerings under Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s proposed budget, but tuition for poor and middle-class students will not increase in the next two years.
In a first-of-its kind provision for the state of Wisconsin, needy students from families that earn less than the stateâ??s median family income of $60,000 a year would be exempt from tuition hikes at System institutions.
“This is a first ever and we did it because we really want to recognize how tough the times are for students and families all over the state, and not just the poorest,” said System President Kevin Reilly.
The University of Wisconsin System faces a cut of up to $174 million under Gov. Jim Doyle’s 2009-’11 budget, offset in part by estimated tuition increases of between 5% and 6% in each of the next two years, state officials announced Tuesday.
Not all families will feel the effects of the tuition increase, however. In a new move aimed at protecting the middle class, families with incomes of less than $60,000 will be held harmless from the tuition increases thanks to a $38 million boost in state funding for financial aid.
That was good news for Cedric Lawson, legislative affairs director for the United Council of UW Students, which represents 110,000 UW students.
With the state facing a nearly $6 billion shortfall, Gov. Jim Doyle is expected to present a budget with deep cuts when he delivers his proposal to lawmakers tonight.
On Feb. 6, Gov. Jim Doyle announced the future installation of a new biomass boiler at the Charter Street Heating Plant in accordance with his NO COAL pledge for state heating plants in Madison. The governor’s decision is a major step forward in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, improving air quality while eliminating the need for and dependence on coal.
Most parents want a healthy environment for their young children and Appleton Education Foundation is helping them tap into cutting-edge research that underscores why it’s so critical.
Wednesday, the foundation, along with the Waisman Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will begin its second Brain to Five speaker series, this time on environmental influences that affect early brain development.
Wisconsin lawmakers and officials are already looking for ways the state may benefit from the nearly $800 billion stimulus package expected to be on President Barack Obamaâ??s desk Monday.
The former dean of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health calls it “a silent tragedy.”
Wisconsin, a state that ranks high in the overall health of its population, has the highest rate of infant mortality among African-Americans in the country.
Key details of the budget that Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle will recommend Tuesday are now known and, with the exception of the coming $3.5 billion shower of federal stimulus cash, there isn’t any good news.
Doyle repeatedly cautioned last week that his budget will be both unpopular and pinch most – if not all – Wisconsin residents in one way or another.
It may sound like a nice problem for states â?? figuring out how to spend the billions in infrastructure funding they’ll receive as part of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan.
But the task is more complicated than it seems, as state officials try to set priorities while managing competing pressures from communities, watchdog groups and federal regulators over how the money is allocated.
Wisconsin lawmakers and officials are already looking for ways the state may benefit from the nearly $800 billion stimulus package expected to be on President Barack Obamaâ??s desk Monday.
BELOIT, Wis. (AP) — The new president of Beloit College says its history as a leading liberal arts college and its ability to keep its ideals drew him to the institution. H. Scott Bierman will begin his job at Beloit College’s 11th president on July 1.
From new research at UW-Madison to new customers for Veronaâ??s Epic Systems to new road, clean water and environmental projects, the federal economic stimulus bill speeding toward passage in Congress holds plenty for Wisconsin, Gov. Jim Doyle and advocates said Thursday.
Those potential payoffs would come on top of increased benefits for unemployed workers, tax cuts for most families and federal aid for schools and health care programs â?? all designed to help struggling citizens and state governments amid the global recession.
“When you dig in to where you can get a big bang for a stimulus buck you end up seeing unemployment insurance and food stamps come up as very critical because that money gets spent,” said Laura Dresser, associate director of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy. “It gets spent on local things and it does it in an equalizing thing: Those people are spending money they otherwise wouldnâ??t have to spend.”
Gov. Jim Doyle on Thursday estimated that Wisconsin will receive about $3.5 billion of the $789 billion federal stimulus package, and almost $2 billion of that would help fix state government’s budget deficit.
Wayne McGown, a man who held top positions under six state governors and four University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellors before being chosen as the first director of the University Research Park, passed away Tuesday after a battle with cancer. He was 79.
The only child of Homer and Amy McGown, Wayne grew up in Stevens Point and went on to graduate from UW-Madison with a bachelor’s in accounting and a master’s in political science.
A coalition of students and colleges in Wisconsin are calling on the Governor to protect financial aid in his state budget.
The governor has warned that all state programs could face cuts in his upcoming budget. If financial aid takes a hit, Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities President Rolf Wegenke warns that it could force many students to give up on higher education. If that happens, he predicts many will never finish college.
Wisconsin could get about $3.5 billion from the federal stimulus compromise.
Much of Wisconsin’s share of the latest $789-billion economic stimulus plan would go to education, healthcare, road projects and jobless benefits. About 70,000 jobs would be created or saved in Wisconsin.
Gov. Jim Doyle announced Wednesday a stimulus package he hopes will decrease the state budget deficit and put Wisconsin residents to work improving infrastructure.
Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle introduced legislation Wednesday to cut $125 million in state spending and raise numerous taxes on certain items in an effort to fix Wisconsinâ??s projected $5.7 billion shortfall.
MADISON – Cancer claimed the life of Wayne McGown on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009, at HospiceCare, Fitchburg. He was a professional in the Boy Scouts of America for seven years before beginning his 40 years of state service: 20 years at the top of State Street as senior administrator under governors Nelson, Reynolds, Knowles, Lucey, Schreiber and Earl; and another 20 at the campus end of State Street serving as special assistant to chancellors Shain, Cohen, Shalala and Ward. Wayne capped his career as the first director of the UW Research Park, 1984-1999.
The economic stimulus bill that is expected to win passage in the Senate on Tuesday would provide about $83 billion for child care, public schools and universities.
That is a lot less than the $150 billion voted by the House, but would still account for a vast increase in the federal share of the nationâ??s education spending.
Governor Jim Doyle announces legislation which cuts state government spending by $125 million dollars – part of effort to close Wisconsin’s budget gap. The governor says the legislation will mean across the board cuts by state government agencies in Wisconsin, and will result in a $700 million reduction in the state’s current budget gap.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — No general sales or income tax increases or furloughs of state workers are in the Democratic plan released Wednesday to begin fixing Wisconsin’s $5.7 billion budget shortfall.
Gov. Jim Doyle said he had no current plans to furlough state workers, as is happening in other cash-strapped states, but it remains an option.
Gov. Jim Doyle and lawmakers plan to announce a deal today to patch a nearly $600 million hole in the state budget that runs through June 30.
Workers who provide essential services in Wisconsin could lose their jobs if the federal economic stimulus package approved by the Senate doesn’t include $25 billion for states to help pay their bills, Gov. Jim Doyle said Tuesday.
The economy is hurting right now.
But, according to the state’s higher education institutions that makes funding for financial aid all that more important.
“There has never been this cross sector. Rallying around on behalf of student aid before.”
Tuesday afternoon state lawmakers got a surprise visit.
Unfortunately, we could see this coming. The Wisconsin Covenant program, Gov. Jim Doyle’s promise to state students about getting a college education, doesn’t have enough money. So says the higher education research center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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Under the Covenant, Wisconsin eighth-graders pledge to keep a B average through high school, take college-prep classes and stay out of trouble. In return, the state pledges to give them a spot in a state college and a financial aid package to help them pay for it.
The two Madison executives Gov. Jim Doyle tapped to lead the office coordinating anticipated federal economic stimulus funding say they won’t be deciding which transportation, education and other projects get the money.
And it won’t become a slush fund for Doyle, the Legislature or local officials, either, they added.
That’s because most of the money will flow through more than 100 existing federal programs, which already set strict criteria for whether a project qualifies, said Gary Wolter, president and chief executive officer of Madison Gas and Electric Co., and Al Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities, planning and management at UW-Madison.
In an effort to better the environment, the University of Wisconsinâ??s Charter Street heating plant will no longer burn coal, Gov. Jim Doyle announced Friday.
A biomass boiler will be installed by 2012, which will produce 250,000 tons of biomass each year, supplying UW with steam for heating and cooling, according to a statement from Doyle.
Noted: The attention is different from the past few legislative sessions, when there was little action on the few proposals on drunken driving, said Lisa Maroney. She is spokeswoman for two coalitions: AWARE, made up of nearly 40 health and medical, law enforcement and insurance groups pushing for a stronger response to drunken driving, and UW Health, made up of University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics, its physicians and the UW Medical Foundation.
Gov. Jim Doyle said he wants to install a new biomass boiler at a coal-burning power plant in downtown Madison by 2012.
The state agreed last year to reduce coal use at the plant under a settlement to stop a federal lawsuit over pollution at the plant. The Charter Street Power Plant helps heat and cool the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Doyle administration today has been receving all sorts of accolades from bioenergy supporters and environmental groups about a proposed biomass power plant at the University of WIsconsin-Madison campus.
They’re praising the administration for vowing to build a power plant capable of burning up to 100% biomass.
At the National Pheasant Fest of all places, there’s talk of both feathers, and the future.
Among the dozen of booths at the event at Madison’s Alliant Energy Center Exhibition Hall on Friday, a handful booths demonstrated management of hunting grounds, and the possible harvesting of those lands for biomass.
The Charter Street Heating Plant that serves the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus will burn biomass and natural gas instead of coal under a plan announced Friday.
Gov. Jim Doyle, who supported proposals earlier this decade to build coal-fired power plants, announced last summer that the state would stop burning coal at state-owned heating plants in Madison.
“We must move away from our dependence on coal,” Doyle said in a statement. “This new project will help build the biomass market in Wisconsin, keep the money we spend on energy in the local economy and create green jobs in the area.”
