Category: State news

Gov. Jim Doyle will push back the release of his next two-year spending plan by a week — until Feb 17 — in the hope the federal stimulus package provides some relief.

The U.S. Senate economic stimulus bill being debated today contains at least $3.1 billion for Wisconsin, according to a review by the Democratic Policy Committee.

The review looked at some, but not all, of the spending in the bill, which could get a vote today.

Gov. Jim Doyle has delayed the introduction of his budget, originally scheduled for Tuesday, until Feb. 17.

Gov. Jim Doyle said he might delay releasing his proposal for a state budget if a federal stimulus package isn’t ready.

Doyle expects to release his budget on Feb. 10.

Wisconsin faces a $5.7 billion deficit and Doyle said he hopes the state will get billions in federal stimulus aid to help fill it. But Congress continues to debate the size and scope of the stimulus package.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Jim Doyle says he might delay releasing his proposal for a state budget if a federal stimulus package isn’t ready.

LAND O’ LAKES, Wis. (AP) — The Conserve School in Land O’ Lakes has notified the state of a mass layoff of 32 employees starting March 31. Most of the layoffs will occur June 30 and be permanent.

The layoffs announced Monday by the state Department of Workforce Development followed the private college prep boarding school’s announcement Friday that it plans a major cutback over the next two years.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are hoping for a slice of federal stimulus money to upgrade the dairy barn.

The building that houses the university’s research cows was built in the 1950s. The stalls were designed for smaller cows. Improved genetics have made research cows beefier, so it’s a tight fit.

Julie Underwood, dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, called it “absolutely vital” that the state halt trends that are weakening education. She said the School Finance Network plan offers “a sustainable financial infrastructure for our public schools.”

Some might call it pork, but the University of Wisconsin-Madison is asking for cow cash.

Dairy researchers want $2.5 million to make life a little easier for the university’s cows. Their barn was built in the 1950s, and the stalls were designed for smaller dairy cows. Improved genetics have made research cows a little “beefier,” and they don’t fit in their stalls. Gov. Jim Doyle said it is a needed expansion.

“It’s like putting a new roof on a building,” Doyle said.

Noted: After much brainstorming and research, they developed the Wisconsin Veterans Intervention Program (WI-VIP). WI-VIP has three components.

The first utilizes law students. The Frank J. Remington Center at the University of Wisconsin Law School will develop and facilitate an outreach program to assist in a whole range of problems facing returning vets, from housing, divorce and drug dependency. The goal, says Ginger, is to address veteransâ?? needs with a multidisciplinary approach, emphasizing the resolution of any civil legal needs, to head off any potential negative brushes with the criminal justice system.

From roomier cattle stalls to a new hockey rink, UW-Madison is seeking the state’s approval to build more than $450 million in projects.

About $150 million of the construction projects will require state funding. The others would be built with gifts or grants, or by borrowing the money and paying it back with fees from students.

The giant economic stimulus bill working its way through Congress should deliver enough money to Wisconsin to keep the state from taking such draconian measures to close its $5.7 billion budget shortfall as furloughing prisoners, knocking poor children off Medicaid rolls and slashing school aids.

A man sentenced to life in prison for killing a woman in 1984 had his conviction overturned and was released Friday after spending 23 years behind bars.

Robert Lee Stinson, 44, of Milwaukee, still faces a charge of first-degree homicide, said Byron Lichstein, an attorney with the Wisconsin Innocence Project, a group of University of Wisconsin-Madison law students and professors who work to right wrongful convictions.

If you are wrongfully convicted of a crime in Wisconsin and sent to prison, current state law sets the wrongful conviction compensation rate at $5,000 for each year you spend behind bars. But if it takes you more than five years to prove your innocence, then $25,000 is all you get.

That cap makes for the lowest compensation rate of any state in the country. But the Wisconsin Innocence Project is working on changing that.

The groupâ??s attorney, Keith Findley, theyâ??ll soon release a report advocating the boosting of the compensation rate. “It’s really woefully inadequate… it’s an insult to the people who’ve been through this,” he says. (4th item.)

After the November election, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin sent every lawmaker a note of congratulations.

In December, she had the school’s lobbyist hand-deliver Christmas cards to their Capitol offices. And she has invited all 132 lawmakers and guests to her official residence for an informal get-to-know-you event Monday, the first of its kind in years.

Since taking over as chancellor last year, Martin has made a determined effort to improve relations between the state’s flagship university and the Legislature. The style is a major contrast to that of her predecessor John Wiley, who denounced lawmakers as petty and overly partisan as he left office.

A new Pew Social & Demographic Trends survey reveals that Wisconsin is the fifth “stickiest” state in the U.S.: the fifth highest percent of population born in the state and still living there.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee officials estimate that the states budget shortfall for 2009-11 will translate to about a $50 million cut to UWMs budget – part of a roughly $500 million cut to the UW System.

UWM Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Christy Brown provided the estimates at todays Plenary Panel session. To get the figures, Brown looked at the percentage cut the UW System took when the state had a $3.2 billion shortfall in 2003-05.

Back then, the UW System took a $250 million cut, but the system raised tuition significantly, bringing in about $100 million in added revenue. In the end, UWM s cut was $13.2 million.

The state’s budget deficit continues to grow.

A report from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau released Thursday says state revenues could fall $593 million short of expenses when the budget period ends on June 30th. That’s almost $250 million more than an estimate released just a few weeks ago.

The Fiscal Bureau says corporate tax payments have made the biggest drop, as the recession results in plant closures and massive layoffs.

At a time of rising unemployment and a looming $5.4 billion budget deficit, Gov. Jim Doyle remained hopeful about Wisconsinâ??s future in his annual State of the State Address Wednesday.

Gov. Jim Doyle addressed concerns regarding the economy, health care and educational funding Wednesday night at his annual State of the State address.

Addressing the state at a dark hour and calling it “a time of sacrifice,” Gov. Jim Doyle sought to bolster Wisconsin’s spirits Wednesday with the bare planks of his seventh and bleakest State of the State speech.

The state’s record deficit is worse than earlier projections, and even top priorities – education, health care and aid to local governments – could face cuts, Gov. Jim Doyle said Wednesday.

Doyle painted a grim picture in his annual “state of the state” message, but he did not spell out how much worse the state’s two-year shortfall will grow beyond the $5.4 billion estimated in November.

Gov. Jim Doyle said in his State of the State speech Wednesday that tough times and sacrifices are ahead.

Doyle laid out the challenges in his speech, although he did not say how he intends to meet them.

“As we move toward recovery, we will do so facing tough decisions in this state,” Doyle said. “As hard as the federal government is working with us, this will be a time of sacrifice. It is a time where we will be responsible with what we have. This is not a time for big new programs.”

Hours after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a federal stimulus package – minus the support of Wisconsin Republicans or any other GOP members – Governor Jim Doyle used his State of the State address to remind Wisconsin residents of the state’s enormous fiscal challenges.

Gov. Jim Doyle will address how Wisconsin can overcome national economic challenges in the annual State of the State address to the state Legislature Wednesday.

Amid a $5.4 billion budget shortfall, the highest unemployment rate since the 1980s and a recession with no end in sight, Gov. Jim Doyle will deliver his annual State of the State address tonight at the Capitol.

Quoted: Al Fish, a University of Wisconsin-Madison vice chancellor and deputy director of the state recovery office.

Governor Jim Doyle delivers his State of the State address tonight, and one of the topics he may discuss is establishing a domestic partner benefits system for state employees.

The Governor says, if Wisconsin wants to remain competitive, the Legislature needs to approve a system for domestic partner benefits. Doyle says that’s especially true when it comes to the UW System, where the state is often competing to attract top talent to do their research here.

Doyle says it’s the right thing to do and competitively important.

State experts said whatever federal stimulus plan is ultimately passed by Congress, it’s expected to arrive in Wisconsin in two waves.

The leaders of Wisconsin’s new state office of recovery and reinvestment told lawmakers initial stimulus money will have to be committed to road projects and other work within six months.

“We’re going to have to figure out ways to do things at a pace that we’re not accustomed to,” UW-Madison associate chancellor Alan Fish told members of a senate committee.

The $5.3 million remodeling of the fourth floor of the GEF 3 state office building was unanimously approved Monday by the state Building Commission but not without a few questions raised about the price tag.

….The commission also approved spending $2.35 million for consultation on upgrading the Charter Street and Capitol heating plants. The coal-fired plants produce steam heat for state buildings and were operated in violation of the Clean Air Act until a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club forced the state to enter into a consent decree that mandated the plants lower their emissions.

Gov. Jim Doyle signed an executive order for the creation of an Office of Recovery and Reinvestment Friday, announcing the initial steps Wisconsin will take toward remedying its economic woes.

The House version of a federal economic stimulus bill would deliver more than $4.3 billion to Wisconsin over the next two years, under details of the bill released Friday.

That figure includes nearly $18 million for Madison schools and millions more for other local districts.

Gov. Jim Doyle on Friday signed an executive order creating an Office of Recovery and Reinvestment to advise him and other state officials on how to spend what is expected to be as much $3.5 billion from the federal economic stimulus package.

Doyle said Gary J. Wolter, president of Madison Gas and Electric Co., will be lent to state government to work as the agency’s director. Wolter’s deputy will be University of Wisconsin-Madison Vice Chancellor Alan Fish, who has worked on campus building projects, long-range planning and transportation systems, Doyle said.

Gov. Jim Doyle has put the president of Madison Gas and Electric Co. in charge of figuring out how to quickly spend billions of dollars in federal economic stimulus money.

Doyle said Friday he understands Gary Wolter may have conflicts of interest in the unpaid position heading the new Office of Recovery and Reinvestment, especially since much of the money is coming for energy projects.

Wolter’s assistant will be Alan Fish, the vice chancellor of facilities, planning and management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the husband of Doyle’s chief of staff, Susan Goodwin. About 15 state employees will be assigned to work in the office, but there will be no additional spending on the effort, Doyle said.

Governor Jim Doyle has tapped a leader from the private sector to head Wisconsin’s new Office of Recovery and Reinvestment. Also joining the new state office, which Doyle created by an executive order, is UW Madison Associate Vice Chancellor Al Fish.

A new policy brief from the higher education research center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says Gov. Jim Doyle’s Wisconsin Covenant program needs to commit public funds to pay for four years of financial aid for low-income students to make a significant improvement in the enrollment of underrepresented students.

Colleges in Wisconsin want some of that stimulus money to help students.

There’s a call for more financial aid for all students who qualify for higher education, regardless of whether they attend a technical school, the UW system or a private college.

Since Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives released a draft of the economic stimulus package last week, there has been increasing speculation regarding its potential effect on Wisconsin and higher education.

State Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, announced his bill Monday he says restores federal civil rights to state and University of Wisconsin System employees.