Category: State budget

Gov. Tony Evers signed Wisconsin’s 2025-27 bipartisan state budget into law Thursday morning, securing a $256 million increase to the University of Wisconsin System budget after months of negotiations with Republican lawmakers. It’s a far cry from the $856 million the system requested, but a welcome alternative to the $87 million cut Republican legislators floated just two weeks ago.

It did not take up funding for the Universities of Wisconsin system, which has been a sticking point in negotiations between Gov. Tony Evers and legislative Republicans. Evers has requested $856 million while Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, says he wants to cut $87 million.

The state Legislature’s finance committee is scheduled on Friday, June 27, to take votes on the 18 remaining areas of the budget that have yet to be written.

The expected work comes after the committee canceled a planned set of votes on key areas, including funding for the University of Wisconsin System, amid an impasse that materialized between the two Republican caucuses and Evers.

The Marquette survey also found most respondents favor keeping funding for state universities flat or reducing it. Among all registered voters, 49 percent said Universities of Wisconsin funding should be kept the same, 27 percent said it should be increased and 23 percent said funding should be reduced.

While the UW system requested an $855 million increase in state funding in its budget request, Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly have endorsed cutting it by $87 million over the next two years.

Evers said discussions about the funding for the University of Wisconsin had included “a positive number” though he wouldn’t go into details. Last week, Vos said his caucus intended to cut $87 million from the UW system.

UW-Madison announced on Monday that schools and colleges will be required to cut their budgets by 5% of their allocation in fiscal year 2026.

While the program was set to end in January 2024, Evers kept it afloat with emergency funding through June 2025.Evers has never vetoed the state budget in full, but he has threatened to do so in previous years over issues like funding cuts for the University of Wisconsin System.Evers said negotiations over  UW System funding levels this year are going in the “right direction” but didn’t reveal specifics, other than, “it’s a positive number.” Last week, Vos confirmed his caucus would support an $87 million cut.

The leader of Wisconsin’s 13 public universities said without additional funding in the next state budget, he expects more branch campus closures, decreased affordability for students, layoffs and program cuts.

“All of which will hit hardest at our most vulnerable UWs,” Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman said on social media this week.

One in four Wisconsin child care providers could close their doors if the state support for centers ends in June, according to a survey of child care providers commissioned by the state Department of Children and Families (DCF) and produced by the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Assembly GOP leaders said they’ve had “productive conversations towards a budget that cuts taxes, puts more money into K-12 schools to stave off higher property taxes, and funds childcare and the university system in exchange for meaningful reforms.”

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said his caucus supports cutting $87 million from  the UW system, but wouldn’t say if that’s the final proposal the budget committee will take up. The system has said it needs additional funding and Evers had requested $855 million in his proposal for it. Vos says Republicans want “reform” of the UW for the “broken process that we currently have.”

GOP lawmakers also delayed a vote on the Universities of Wisconsin budget which had been scheduled for Tuesday. Evers’ budget called for about a $700 million increase in state funding for the UW system.

Democratic lawmakers told reporters Tuesday they’d heard Republicans were considering cutting funds to the UW system. The GOP cochairs of the budget committee did not comment when asked about that prospect.

Lawmakers writing the state budget delayed a vote on the University of Wisconsin System, with Republican legislative leaders declining to explain why.

Committee co-chairs Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, and Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, wouldn’t elaborate on why the vote was pulled from the June 17 schedule.

Evers said in a statement that he had agreed to support Republicans’ half of the deal including their top tax priorities, while Republicans could not reach consensus within their caucuses to back the governor’s proposals, including funding increases for K-12 education, child care and the University of Wisconsin System.

An Evers spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the June 12 vote.

The Board of Regents, which oversees UW-Madison and the state’s 12 other public universities, is set to hear a proposal Thursday that would increase UW-Madison’s undergraduate application fee from $70 to $80 starting in August.

The University of Wisconsin System alone is seeking $855 million from the state Legislature in an effort to make branch campuses more viable and avoid tuition increases for in-state undergraduate students for the next two school years.

Leaders of Wisconsin colleges and universities are speaking out against pending cuts to federal financial aid after they cleared a major legislative hurdle.

Wisconsin college leaders say potential changes to federal financial aid would put higher education out of reach to more students and make college more expensive.