Category: State news

Gov. Jim Doyle on Wednesday slammed the two-year, $54 billion budget passed by the state Assembly earlier in the day, but Republican leaders celebrated the spending plan they said reins in the tax burden on families.

Madison – The Republican-controlled state Assembly early today passed a two-year, $54 billion budget that spends less and borrows less than what Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle proposed.

But Doyle and other critics said the budget would decimate public schools.

Former UW-Madison Vice Chancellor Paul Barrows returned from seven months of paid leave to a big pay cut.

This pay cut took place, as Governor Doyle and several state lawmakers questioned why Barrows was granted such a long, publicly funded leave

Wisconsin’s civil service system – which was created to keep state jobs out of the hands of partisan political hacks – turned 100 on Friday with two very different celebrations.

Outside the state Capitol, about 50 state workers protested what they claim is a growing trend of eliminating civil service jobs and replacing them with contract workers and limited-term employees.

….Inside the Capitol, Doyle marked the anniversary by recognizing more than 150 top-notch state workers. Doyle praised the workers for helping the state get through its worst financial crisis without major cuts in basic services to Wisconsin citizens.

Gov. Jim Doyle demanded an explanation Friday for why a top administrator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison continued to earn his nearly $200,000-a-year salary during a seven-month personal leave that came after the revelation of an affair with a graduate student and the announcement he was stepping down as vice chancellor of student affairs.

STEVENS POINT – University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point students plan to take their opposition to the deep budget cuts proposed for the UW System to the steps of the capitol in Madison on Tuesday.

“We want to show our numbers and show that we’re not going to take this sitting down,” said Melissa Cichantek, president of UWSP’s Student Government Association. “We are willing to make our voices heard.”

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Gov. Jim Doyle called on University of Wisconsin-Madison officials on Friday to explain why a top administrator was allowed to collect his salary while on paid personal leave for seven months.

Paul Barrows, vice chancellor of student affairs, has been on leave since early November while continuing to earn his full annual salary of $191,749, covering his time away with accrued sick time and vacation days.

Rep. Jeffrey Wood’s first speech on the Assembly floor was a memorable one.

The Republican from Chippewa Falls divulged that he might have been aborted had the practice been legal in 1969 and chastised party leaders for ignoring concerns about vague wording in a bill that would ban the University of Wisconsin System from dispensing the morning-after pill.

Timberlake Friday said the tentative agreement with WSEU leaves 4,500 state workers, including the UW-Madison teaching assistants, state attorneys and public defenders, and state troopers, without a 2003-05 contract. All remain in bargaining except the Teaching Assistants Association, which won’t return until the fall semester, she said.

A 27 News investigation first uncovered a UW-Madison administrator on extended sick leave, was a finalist for a high paying job at the University of Texas. A UW-Madison official revealed Vice Chancellor Paul Barrows was in a relationship with a student before his leave.

Casey Nagy, Executive Assistant to UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said Barrows’ romance with the student was within the rules and his leave has been medically related. But several state lawmakers are not satisified.

MADISON, Wis. – After an emotional debate, the state Assembly voted to make Wisconsin the first state in the country to move toward banning the so-called morning-after pill on state college campuses.

The Republican-controlled Assembly passed, 49-41, late Thursday a bill that would prohibit University of Wisconsin System health centers from advertising, prescribing or dispensing emergency contraception – drugs that can block a pregnancy in the days after sex. The bill goes to the state Senate.

A bill scheduled to be debated today by the state Assembly that would ban the University of Wisconsin System from advertising and prescribing emergency contraceptives or ââ?¬Å?morning-after pillsââ?¬Â is drawing mixed reaction.

Introduced in March by Rep. Daniel LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, the bill prevents health-care providers at student health centers and campuses from advertising, prescribing or dispensing emergency contraception.

Jennifer Noyes, a former auditor with the state Legislative Audit Bureau who is a researcher at an institute for research on poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was named to a five-member panel appointed to oversee the Milwaukee Public Museum’s finances. The panel was appointed as part of a deal reached Monday between the museum, the county and banks. Under it, the county will guarantee up to $9 million in loans to the museum, provided the independent panel oversees their use. The panel also will monitor the museum’s budget.

A legislative proposal to allow technical colleges in La Crosse and elsewhere to offer liberal arts classes could be a good idea whose time has not yet come.

State Rep. Jeff Wood, R-Chippewa Falls, has a bill in the Legislature that would allow state technical colleges in La Crosse, Kenosha and Eau Claire to offer two-year liberal arts degrees, whose credits would transfer to University of Wisconsin campuses.

A top administrator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced Monday that she was leaving her post, citing Wisconsin’s refusal to grant domestic partner benefits to university employees as a major reason.

State lawmakers once again faced a tough job with few easy answers when Gov. Jim Doyle handed them his state budget request four months ago.

Credit the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee for resisting a borrowing binge and for slapping Doyle’s hand when he reached for pots of money he shouldn’t touch.

The committee’s worst decision was to tinker with tax cuts instead of investing more money in the University of Wisconsin System and public schools. These institutions educate tomorrow’s workforce and, in the case of UW, prime the economy with dynamic research and spin-off, high-salary businesses.

The UW Board of Regents on Friday asked the state Legislature for more student financial aid and the money to hire 120 faculty members.
The vote came after Regents this week learned that state-taxpayer support per student is now further below the national average than it was in 1986.

The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee advanced a two-year state budget Friday that would tightly limit property taxes, cut the gasoline tax by a penny and start to phase out income taxes on Social Security benefits.

-Voted to give the University of Wisconsin System $9 million more in state funding over the next two years.

What it means: The plan is $40 million less than the governor wanted and millions less than what the university wanted to cover its expected increase in costs. The committee also reduced the governor’s proposed increase for financial aid, meaning students will either get smaller grants than anticipated or fewer students will get the help.

-Rejected the governor’s plan to provide domestic partner benefits to UW System employees.

What it means: UW-Madison will remain the only institution in the Big Ten that does not provide the benefits.