Republican legislators were told Tuesday that Gov. Jim Doyle’s property tax limits would lower the December bill on a median-valued Wisconsin home by $3 – a drop that gave the governor the political high ground on the issue.
Milwaukee police busted two parties near Marquette University over the weekend, handing out tickets for more than $17,000 each to two men accused of running illegal taverns out of houses. One of the men, a business student, had drink menus and kept a record book listing profits, police said.
(MADISON) Some Republican state legislators are criticizing Governor Doyle�s plan to spend $1 million on insurance benefits for the partners of gay and lesbian University employees. But supporters say the benefits are crucial to attracting and retaining top-notch faculty. (Second item.)
UW-Madison students will get a preview today of what the United Council of UW Students has cooked up for the state Legislature when the group presents its “Keep the UW Doors Open to All” campaign on Library Mall.
The University of Wisconsin released the 2004 annual financial report last week, detailing UW�s past achievements while describing the decrease in state support to the Madison campus.
Gov. Jim Doyle’s plan to control December property tax bills tightly has at least slowed the march of Republicans to out-freeze the Democrat. But Doyle’s surprise rush to embrace a top goal of Republicans – strict controls via limits on the levies of local governments – has also created a dangerous political expectation for a first-term governor up for re-election in 21 months.
The good news remains good, and the bad news has gotten better when it comes to high school graduation in Wisconsin. A new report concludes that the black graduation rate in Wisconsin has risen from 40% in 1997 to 50% in 2002. For whites, it rose from 85% to 91%, while the rate for Hispanics was steady at 58%.
Capitol politics took a sharp turn last week when Gov. Jim Doyle outlined his budget proposal for a “freeze” on government spending.
A group of University of Wisconsin System administrators is pushing for a new look at how financial resources – including tuition and state-appropriated tax dollars – are distributed among Wisconsin’s public universities.
Given the potential deficit that Gov. Jim Doyle confronted in putting together the next state budget, the plan he introduced last week is nothing short of magical. That magic is its strength but also its weakness.
The balanced budget the governor proposed delivers marvelous results $850 million more for public schools, $100 million more for the University of Wisconsin System, enough money to maintain medical assistance for the poor all while avoiding any state tax increases and while placing limits on property taxes.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents met Friday for the second day of a two-day meeting to discuss the effects of financial aid cuts, increasing student success at college and the implementation of the diversity program Plan 2008.
An Oklahoma educator will take over at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls as the highest-paid chancellor in Wisconsin outside of Madison and Milwaukee.
The Board of Regents selected Donald Betz, the provost at the University of Central Oklahoma, to succeed the late Ann Lydecker. Betz will make $175,000; Lydecker, who died last spring, earned $156,600 at the time of her death.
BOULDER, Colo. ââ?¬â? University of Colorado professor Ward L. Churchill has come under fire recently for comparing the Sept. 11 victims to Nazis and for questionable claims of Indian ancestry. Now, fellow academics are accusing him of fraud. (Login required.)
DENVER – Academic freedom has never completely protected professors who make unpopular statements.
Madison – It could have been worse, but it’s not ideal.
That’s the answer many University of Wisconsin System students and leaders give when asked how they fare in Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposed 2005-’07 budget. Combine Doyle’s proposal with what President Bush outlined for higher education in the federal budget, and students, in particular, start to feel squeezed.
Doing away with late-night drink specials, registering kegs and increased patrolling for “party houses” were among the recommendations made Thursday by La Crosse’s alcohol task force.
As far as Gov. Jim Doyle is concerned, the future for stem-cell research in Wisconsin couldn’t be brighter.
UW System Regent Guy Gottschalk believes Gov. Jim Doyle came up short when figuring his 2005-’07 biennial budget proposal. Students remain in the burdened position of paying twice as much for tuition than the state provides in paying for its college students. According to Gottschalk, for every $2 a student pays, the state pays $1.
The state Department of Administration has paid a private consultant more than a half-million dollars to suggest ways it can save money on building management, yet it says one key initiative was already in the works before the study was assigned and another is not being actively pursued.
After a month-long absence from meetings, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents reconvened Thursday to discuss a full load of initiatives.
Despite a few pointed criticisms, the UW Board of Regents agreed Thursday to get behind Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposed budget for the University of Wisconsin System, a proposal members described as not perfect but probably the best they could get.
UW-Whitewater Chancellor Jack Miller knows he can’t please everyone. And he knows some people will find his decision Thursday to allow a controversial professor to speak on campus “repugnant.”
Tuesday’s article detailing Gov. Jim Doyle’s plan to trim public relations staffs within state goverment lacked some key information on the critical role public relations professionals play in building relationships between state government and its citizens.
Dear Editor: The article detailing Gov. Doyle’s plan to trim public relations staff lacked some key information on the critical role PR professionals play in building relationships between state government and its citizens. Those of us who work in this profession feel strongly that cutting PR staff would be a mistake.
UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley says wholesale job cuts at the university are unwise and unrealistic in the effort to balance the state budget.
On Tuesday, Gov. Jim Doyle unveiled his executive budget, in which he told the university to cut $65 million in administrative and purchasing positions. The money would be reallocated to other areas of the university.
Gov. Jim Doyle’s state budget proposal Tuesday did much to satisfy the wishes of the UW System and UW-Madison brass. There are still some issues, however-particularly the Governor’s proposed 5 to 7 percent tuition increase and request that the UW System reallocate some $65 millionÃ?Â-that are raising some red flags.
One day after Gov. Jim Doyle delivered his budget proposal from the Capitol, University of Wisconsin students and faculty responded Wednesday to his plans to ensure the university ââ?¬Å?remains one of the most affordable.ââ?¬Â
Bill Schultz is thankful the state has helped him attend college.
The third-year political science student uses a wheelchair to get around the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus. He was born with spinal cord tumors that, when removed as a child, left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Some UW students fear the Governor’s budget takes more than it gives to the university system.
Chancellor John Wiley on Wednesday said UW-Madison may be stretched too thin for further cuts envisioned in Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal.
He finally said it. After cutting it out of the State of the State address earlier this year, Gov. Jim Doyle got his priorities straight at his budget address Tuesday.
“For the first time in more than 10 years, my budget will add more state money to the UW and financial aid than it will to the Department of Corrections,” he said.
For students of the humanities, “paid internships” can be a nearly oxymoronic phrase-it is no wonder UW-Madison competition for them is so fierce.
UW students will face tuition increases of 5 to 7 percent in each of the next two years under the 2005-’06 budget proposed by Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle Tuesday night.
As Governor Doyle addressed a packed state capitol last night, his misleading rhetoric produced hope for a University of Wisconsin System badly neglected of late. But his numbers told a different story, one with as much heartbreak as his hyperbole had delivered hope; one where students will now be forced to fork over a five to seven percent tuition increase, neatly packed onto the steep hikes already thrust upon undergraduates last time the governor delivered his budget.
Gov. Jim Doyle addressed the state from the Capitol Tuesday evening to propose his biennial budget for Wisconsin and to announce education is his main priority.
Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposed budget doesn’t cut the number of people who can receive health benefits from Medicaid, BadgerCare and SeniorCare.
Gov. Jim Doyle will present his second budget to state lawmakers tonight, aiming not only to balance the books amid a projected $1.6 billion deficit, but balance scores of competing interests and priorities for the next two years.
Doyle plans to balance the budget without making the kind of large-scale cuts he did two years ago, according to Administration Secretary Marc Marotta.
….For the UW, Doyle is expected to reverse two years of major reductions.
In an attempt to bring UW-Madison up to par with other Big Ten schools, Gov. Jim Doyle will present a controversial proposal to the state Legislature Tuesday to fund domestic partner benefits for all University of Wisconsin employees.
As Gov. Jim Doyle prepares to deliver his final 2005-06 biennial state budget address tonight before a joint session of the Wisconsin legislature, state legislators are already discussing several of his proposals.
Gov. Jim Doyle will recommend cutting 1,800 state jobs when he submits his budget plan for the next biennium.
State agencies, universities and colleges spend more than $12 million on salaries for more than 200 people employed as public relations and public information specialists last year.
Gov. Jim Doyle will set an optimistic tone Tuesday when he outlines a biennial budget plan full of big numbers and policy changes. But state employees will be searching for hints to the eternal question of “where’s mine?”
About half of the state’s classified employees have gone nearly two years without a pay increase – their unions are operating under 2001-2003 contracts.
Is the public information provided by state public relations professionals vital information that the public needs? Or is it “spin” that builds the images of state agencies and colleges and elected officials?
Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonprofit agency that keeps a close eye on state government, says the extent and purpose of public relations activities generally depend on the person doing them and the head of the agency or institution where they work.
As the state of Wisconsin axed jobs and closed service centers amid a fiscal crisis during the past four years, state departments, universities and colleges kept an extensive list of public relations employees, who provide information to the media and state residents.
Annual salaries and benefits for public relations and public information positions in state agencies, the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Technical College System came to more than $12 million for 208 people as of Dec. 1, 2004, the date of a Capital Times survey.
Gov. Jim Doyle today ordered all state office buildings to be totally smoke free and suggested the Legislature enact a law doing the same for all local government buildings.
The executive order gives Cabinet secretaries 30 days to make all state buildings “completely smoke free,” meaning that designated smoking areas now allowed under current law will have to be eliminated.
In an effort to preempt Tuesday’s state biennial budget disclosure, a group of 10 UW-Madison students unraveled 3,000 petitions in Gov. Jim Doyle’s office Friday calling for lower tuition costs and an increase the quality of education.
Gov. Jim Doyle announced Sunday the doors of the Wisconsin Historical Society Museum, located on Capitol Square at 30 N. Carroll St., will remain open.
Gov. Jim Doyle will propose cutting 1,800 state jobs when he proposes his budget to the Legislature Tuesday night, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
This is just one step in Doyle’s long-range goal of eliminating 10,000 government jobs.
Representatives from a coalition of University of Wisconsin organizations descended upon Gov. Jim Doyle�s office Friday afternoon to deliver more than 5,000 signatures requesting additional state aid for the UW System.
The jockeying has already begun over the spending plan for the University of Wisconsin System, even before Gov. Jim Doyle fills in a big piece of the puzzle on Tuesday. He will unveil his proposed 2005-’07 state budget, which will specify the allotment UW will get in general funds.
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? Su-Chun Zhang received another boost to his stem-cell research from a grant awarded on Monday by the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Gov. Jim Doyle will recommend abolishing about 1,800 more state jobs over the next two years when he gives the Legislature his proposed budget Tuesday, taking one more step toward his long-range goal of eliminating 10,000 jobs.
Now this would be a frozen tundra.
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association and the Green Bay Packers have had preliminary talks about playing next season’s U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame hockey game at Lambeau Field, pitting the University of Wisconsin against a team to be determined.
While Gov. Jim Doyle was touting Wisconsin’s amazing job growth turnaround, a Wall Street analyst was warning about the state living on borrowed money.
Richard Raphael, executive managing director of Fitch Ratings, said that Wisconsin faces “structural imbalances” in its government operations that cannot be solved through economic growth alone. The current state deficit stands at $1.6 billion.
After a 36 percent tuition increase in the last legislative session, Rep. Rob Kreibich is proposing a bill to cap tuition in the University System over the next two years.
Kreibich says the bill will limit tuition and fee increases in the next budget to three percent. He says the cap is needed in order; to make higher education in Wisconsin affordable and accessible to all, and a $1.6 million budget shortfall likely means the $15 million in general purpose revenue requested for financial aid will not be provided.
A state assembly member is pushing a bill to cap tuition and fee increases at the University of Wisconsin System for two years.
A new report from the University of Wisconsin System highlights numerous existing ways the universities save millions through operating efficiencies, but also acknowledges there’s room for millions more in savings.
A combination of members from several University of Wisconsin organizations, including the Associated Students of Madison (ASM), Student Labor Action Coalition (SLAC) and the Teaching Assistant Association (TAA), will be delivering over 5,000 signatures to Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and the Joint Finance Committee today.
The state would sell some buildings, streamline agencies’ human resources and computer departments and buy more supplies in bulk to save $96 million under Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal, administration officials say.
The moves would help fill Wisconsin’s $1.6 billion deficit and free up more money for programs, Administration Secretary Mark Marotta said Wednesday.
One of the University of Wisconsin System’s chief critics said Wednesday he is encouraged by System President Kevin Reilly’s latest plans to cut costs and make changes.
