The GOP-crafted state budget may have flown through the Assembly early Wednesday, but the plan still faces major roadblocks before it can become law.
Standing in the way are fiscal conservatives in the state Senate, who want deeper spending cuts in the state’s $52.9 billion two-year spending blueprint, and Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat who has warned he could veto the entire plan if it doesn’t give more money for schools.
The next time the University of Wisconsin System hires a top administrator with a fat salary, maybe the job title should be something like this: vice chancellor of gaffe and blunder prevention and contrition.
Lawmakers say they will ask the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents today to fire a top UW-Madison administrator who collected his $191,000 salary during seven months of paid leave.
But Paul Barrows’ lawyer, Lester Pines, said his client has done nothing wrong.
“A lot of legislators, their only reaction to any problem is one of two things: cut taxes or fire the person,” Pines said. “That’s the extent of the intellect of some legislators.”
A newly hired lawyer for embattled UW-Madison administrator Paul Barrows said Wednesday his client has done nothing wrong, despite growing legislative pressure to have him fired for taking a seven-month paid leave triggered in part by a failed relationship with a graduate student.
“There’s no basis to fire him,” said Madison attorney Lester Pines. “A lot of legislators, their only reaction to any problem is one of two things: cut taxes or fire the person. That’s the extent of the intellect of some legislators.”
State budget passage not certain in Senate
Phil Brinkman Wisconsin State Journal
June 22, 2005
With their 60-39 majority, Assembly Republicans were able to do without the four dissenters who joined Democrats to vote against the 2005-07 state budget shortly before sunrise Wednesday.
Later today, some State Lawmakers plan to ask University of Wisconsin Board of Regents to fire him.
Barrows is the former Vice Chancellor who’s been part of a 27 News investigation.
Madison, Wis. – A proposed state ban on all forms of human cloning has been approved by the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Children and Families and is headed for a full Assembly vote.
A new arrangement linking Milwaukee Area Technical College, Waukesha County Technical College and Gateway Technical College could help state employers.
In the first such alliance in Wisconsin, the three neighboring colleges are teaming up to serve manufacturing companies with a Web site, easier access to courses and, if necessary, customized worker training. Known as an advanced manufacturing network, the arrangement is being duplicated elsewhere in the state to serve manufacturers and train workers for an expected resurgence in Wisconsin factory jobs.
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.
Gov. Jim Doyle proposed a biennial budget that any responsible conservative could support. He held the line on taxes, made painful cuts in state programs, and found the resources to maintain the state’s long-standing commitments to support public education and programs that aid the neediest Wisconsinites.
There was nothing radical about Doyle’s budget. Yet Republicans on the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee have scrapped the Doyle budget and replaced it with a proposal that is indeed radical.
Dear Editor: As alarmed as I was to hear of the seven months of paid leave taken by UW official Paul Barrows, I was equally alarmed when I read of Rep. Rob Kreibich’s knee-jerk reaction to “sever all ties with him” without first finding out all the facts behind the case.
There were a couple of examples again this week that explain why defenders of the University of Wisconsin sometimes throw up their hands in utter frustration.
….Some day, the UW has to learn to be more above board and open to the public it serves. When it doesn’t, it just provides more grist for the mills of those with an anti-UW agenda. And, believe me, there are plenty of them around these days.
MADISON, Wis. ââ?¬â? Seven years ago, when James Thomson became the first scientist to isolate and culture human embryonic stem cells, he knew he was stepping into a whirlwind of controversy.
He just didn’t expect the whirlwind to last this long.
In fact, the moral, ethical and political controversy is still revving up ââ?¬â? in Washington, where federal lawmakers are considering a bill to provide more federal support for embryonic stem-cell research; and in Madison, Thomson’s base of operations, where Wisconsin legislators are considering new limits on stem-cell research.
A ban on cloning could lead to “a mass exodus” by Wisconsin researchers, according to the chancellor of UW Madison. (Audio.)
Madison – Legislative committees Tuesday approved a bill that would impose a comprehensive ban on human cloning.
The five Republicans on the Assembly’s Committee on Children and Families supported the bill, while two Democrats opposed it; one Democratic member wasn’t present for the vote. In the Senate’s Judiciary, Corrections and Privacy Committee, three Republicans voted in favor of the bill, while two Democrats voted against it.
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.
Despite Democratic efforts to water down the most controversial aspects, the Republican-controlled Assembly was poised today to pass a new two-year state budget.
Democrats were preparing to introduce a spate of amendments to the Republican plan, which would cut Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposed spending on local schools in half and trim an additional $25 million from the University of Wisconsin System’s budget.
“We want to show the dramatic differences between what’s reasonable and what their cut-throat politics are all about,” said Assembly Minority Leader Jim Kreuser, D-Kenosha.
A bill to make human cloning a crime in Wisconsin is nothing more than a “back-door attempt to criminalize embryonic stem cell research,” UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley says.
“That’s the only reason I can think of for banning a tool that could be used for good or for ill,” Wiley told state lawmakers on Monday.
Madison – Concerned that technology is outpacing ethics, Republicans in the Legislature are pushing a ban on human cloning, but critics say the move would block future research into genetic diseases.
The proposal is on a fast track. Identical bills – SB 243 and AB 499 – were introduced late Thursday, and Senate and Assembly committees will jointly hold a public hearing on the measures Monday.
UW Madison’s chancellor is warning of the impact of a proposal at the Capitol that would ban human cloning in Wisconsin. Chancellor John Wiley testified at a legislative hearing yesterdayââ?¬Â¦and he believes the measure would also ban embryonic stem cell research. (Additional UW-Madison items follow.)
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
The bad – UW, W-2:
Republicans cut $90 million from the University of Wisconsin System’s base budget, reduced the number of faculty and forced layoffs of other staff at our 26 academic institutions. Even worse, over $13 million was slashed from student financial aid, jeopardizing access to UW schools for thousands of middle-class families….
Gov. Jim Doyle has announced the members of the Consortium on Biobased Industry, which is charged with preparing a roadmap over the next year on how to best support the development of biobased products and energy in Wisconsin.
“In Wisconsin, we may not have oil fields,” Doyle said Friday. “But we can grow our own biobased resources. We will use these resources to produce renewable energy and value-added products, and reduce our dependence on oil.”
UW-Madison professors Charles Hill and Michael Sussman were among those appointed by the governor.
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 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.
Four months into the leave, he applied for a job at the University of Texas at Austin. Just this week, he withdrew his name for a list of finalists for an administrative job there.
WAUSAU (AP) – A Madison man walking around the state to support a new University of Wisconsin-Madison cancer research building took a break in Wausau over the weekend before embarking on the second half of his journey.
Ron Reschke left his home in Madison on April 29 and since then has traveled more than 600 miles, stopping in La Crosse, Eau Claire, Ashland, Rhinelander and Merrill.
Anyone caught cloning a human being in Wisconsin could face up to a decade in prison and a million dollars in forfeitures under a Republican bill that outraged stem cell scientists fear could handcuff their work in the state.
The measure would ban cloning to create babies. It also would outlaw so-called therapeutic cloning, a term for cloning human embryos for research such as extracting stem cells. Embryos are destroyed after taking out the cells.
The bill also would ban a practice called parthenogenesis, in which a female egg cell is stimulated to divide without fertilizing it.
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.”
I wish Wisconsin’s legislative and executive leadership followed the example of great leaders who, in the midst of mandatory cost-cutting to avoid losses, understand their advantages and sacrifice everything else during tight budgets to ensure future success.
These same leaders charge premium prices when customers highly value their offering.
MADISON, Wis. – Anyone caught cloning a human being in Wisconsin could face up to a decade in prison and a million dollars in forfeitures under a Republican bill that outraged stem cell scientists fear could handcuff their work in the state.
The measure would ban cloning to create babies. It also would outlaw so-called therapeutic cloning, a term for cloning human embryos for research such as extracting stem cells. Embryos are destroyed after taking out the cells.
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.
WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) – A Madison man walking around the state to support a new University of Wisconsin cancer research building is taking a break in Wausau this weekend before embarking on the second half of his journey.
Ron Reschke left his home in Madison on April 29 and since then he has traveled more than 600 miles, stopping in La Crosse, Eau Claire, Ashland, Rhinelander and Merrill.
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.
Madison – Concerned that technology is outpacing ethics, Republicans in the Legislature are pushing a ban on human cloning, but critics say the move would block future research into genetic diseases.
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.
The state Assembly once again put politics above patients’ medical needs when members voted almost entirely along party lines Tuesday in favor of the so-called “conscience protection” bill, AB 207.
The legislation would allow health professionals, without fear of repercussion, to refuse to participate in procedures such as extracting embryonic stem cells for research or removing a feeding tube, if the action conflicts with their moral or religious beliefs.
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.
The state Assembly late Thursday narrowly passed a bill that would prohibit University of Wisconsin System health clinics from advertising, prescribing or dispensing the morning-after pill to students.
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.
Dear Editor: After witnessing Rep. John Gard’s fight against unmarried partner benefits for state employees and the depredations he seems bent on perpetrating on the University of Wisconsin System, I want to let him know that I’m taking my UW Ph.D. to New Mexico, where my new state job includes health care coverage for my unmarried partner.
Thanks for the great education.
Alan Puckett, Madison
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.
Wisconsin university students convicted of selling or possessing drugs would be barred from receiving state financial aid and academic scholarships under a bill introduced in a state Senate committee on Wednesday.
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.
How can the Republican members of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee sleep at night – these users, manipulators, and traitors who are destroying our once proud University of Wisconsin System? How is it that they have lost their moral compass and feel compelled to dismantle one of this state’s greatest assets?
And what about our political and business leaders who have been trumpeting a vision that Wisconsin manufacturing jobs lost to China will be replaced by better high-tech and service industry opportunities. Do they think this can be accomplished without providing a world-class educational experience for our Wisconsin young people?
(Charles W. Nason lives in Stevens Point. He is president of the Worzalla Publishing Co. and a graduate of UW-Madison.)
In a rare show of bipartisanship, two state lawmakers and a former top aide to Gov. Jim Doyle are proposing a $13.5 billion-a-year plan that would guarantee health insurance coverage for all Wisconsin residents.
The proposal was unveiled this morning during a hearing before the Assembly Medicaid Reform Committee.
The plan would require all employers – large and small – to pay into a statewide pool run by a new, private nonprofit corporation. The pool would be similar to the state’s unemployment compensation and workers’ compensation funds.
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.
The state Assembly passed a bill Tuesday intended to protect health care and biotechnology workers who object on moral or religious grounds to performing certain procedures.
Sometimes, good intentions, like good deeds, not only go unrecognized but actually end up causing problems. An example is the decision earlier this year by health officials at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to advocate the use of emergency contraception for female students on spring break to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Dean of Students Luoluo Hong is leaving for Arizona State University, the UW announced today. In leaving, Hong bashed the state for its budget cuts to higher education.
In a growing debate about higher education reform in Wisconsin, technical colleges are taking their turn to stake out new territory, with a bid to expand their offerings for liberal arts students. A proposal involving colleges based in Kenosha, La Crosse and Eau Claire would change a state law that restricts such schools to vocational education so they do not compete with the University of Wisconsin System.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher says that it could take hundreds of years, in the best of circumstances, to reverse conditions that have turned countless lakes into bowls of pea soup.
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.
How can the Republican members of Wisconsin’s Joint Finance Committee sleep at night … these users, manipulators and traitors who are destroying our once proud University of Wisconsin System? How is it that they have lost their moral compass and feel compelled to dismantle one of this state’s greatest assets?
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.
In her recent auditions for the United States women’s basketball national teams, Jolene Anderson hasn’t been asked to carry the load the way she does at the University of Wisconsin. But that’s just fine with the sophomore-to-be, whose main goal was simply getting her foot in the door.
Anderson fulfilled that objective Sunday when she was named to the 12-player roster for the U.S. team that will compete at the Under-19 World Championships later this summer.
Even empty political rhetoric can have disastrous consequences. The increasingly phony political posturing over stem cell research has the potential to ruin real lives and to wreck the state’s real economic future.
In his intriguing book “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” Thomas Frank advanced the idea that Republican politicians who pander to religious extremists on so-called cultural issues don’t really want to win.
According to Frank, Republican strategists are fully aware they can never hope to overcome the U.S. Constitution to outlaw abortion, force prayer in public schools or send people to prison for burning dry goods that happen to be red, white and blue.
Dear Editor: It was with frustration that I read about the amount of money the state has saved with the use of Navitus Health Solutions for prescription drug coverage for state employees. What the article didn’t mention is that many individuals have had to change to entirely different medications in place of ones they have taken for years with benefit. Often the new medication isn’t as effective or has bothersome side effects.
Did lackluster lobbying cost the University of Wisconsin System millions of dollars during this year’s budget deliberations? Three veteran Democratic lawmakers believe it did.
The three – Reps. Mark Pocan of Madison and Marlin Schneider of Wisconsin Rapids and Sen. Russ Decker of Schofield – say the UW didn’t do enough to head off potential cuts sought by Republicans.
….”For a lot of very smart people, they do a lot of things that aren’t very bright,” said Pocan, a finance committee member whose district includes the UW-Madison.
