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Category: State budget

UW to receive new dorms, renovations: Evers approves $103 million for statewide projects, including UW System changes

The Badger Herald

The Universities of Wisconsin System requested a variety of projects when the State Building Commission was considering allocation of its funds, according to the official State Building Commission’s agenda and requests statement. These included new electrical systems, demolition and replacement of old or outdated buildings along with fixing and adding parking lots around campus, according to the agenda and requests statement.

‘This building has to go’: Evers visits Chadbourne Residence Hall, Mosse Humanities to hear student concerns

The Daily Cardinal

Gov. Tony Evers visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison Thursday, touring Chadbourne Residence Hall and the Mosse Humanities Building to hear student concerns about the building and to highlight his 2025-27 Executive and Capital Budget investments.

Gov. Evers seeks $4 billion for state building projects, including UW science facilities and new juvenile prison

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers wants to spend about $4 billion on state building upgrades across Wisconsin under a plan released Monday.

If approved, about $1.6 billion would go to the University of Wisconsin System for brick-and-mortar building projects. Other big-ticket items include $634 million for the Department of Corrections, $137 million for upgrades to veteran homes and $40 million to restore the state Capitol building.

Tony Evers on budget compromise, Trump and DOGE. Takeaways from the governor’s meeting with county leaders

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Evers highlighted his “Year of the Kid” designation and said a focus needs to be on schools during the budget season. An ongoing battle over literacy funding from the last budget is yet to be squared away and he called for setting aside funds for youth mental health. Though funding for public schools, the University of Wisconsin and the state’s technical schools is large, it’s a necessary investment, especially because of the uncertainty at the federal level, he said.

Gov. Tony Evers’ budget calls for tax cuts, protection against ‘needless chaos’ of Trump policies

Wisconsin State Journal

Evers proposed $856 million in new operational funding for the UW system, more than the $800 million he pledged to the UW Board of Regents last August. His proposed budget also includes $60 million in new state aid for Wisconsin’s technical college system, $10 million of which is meant to support the 16 two-year colleges in investing in artificial intelligence.

Embattled UW-Madison engineering building back on track after Republicans hit pause

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The embattled University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering building is back on track.

The State Building Commission unanimously approved the project’s new $420 million budget during a Friday meeting, a few weeks after Republican lawmakers stalled the project last month over transparency concerns related to increasing the project’s budget.

Opinion | GOP takes another kick at the University of Wisconsin

The Capital Times

Despite losing 14 seats in the fall election, GOP legislators still feel empowered to hold the state’s largest economic engine hostage to the whims of its most petty members. Republicans on the state Building Commission ganged up on UW-Madison last week and threw another obstacle in the path of the long-awaited and already-approved new engineering building.

Public money for higher education benefits everyone. Restore funding levels.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

When UW leaders asked for $845 million, a fraction of the total amount cut from the UW budget under his watch, Assembly Speaker Vos said, “I just know that some of these numbers, where they ask for the moon, are unrealistic.”

When Vos graduated from UW-Whitewater in 1991, Wisconsin’s higher education appropriations per student were $11,028. In 2023 it was $9,277. So the “moon” was realistic when he personally benefited from taxpayer support, but is unrealistic when it is your turn to benefit?

Republicans stall UW-Madison engineering building again, citing transparency concerns

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The new University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering building is again in peril.

Republican lawmakers rejected the UW System’s request to increase the project’s $347 million budget by $73 million during a State Building Commission meeting Wednesday. The ask to bump up the budget was based on increased costs and design changes, including an additional floor for business partnership opportunities.

Wisconsin copies DOGE with new committee focusing on wasteful spending

Washington Examiner

Nedweski outlined a plan to address possible inefficiencies within Milwaukee Public Schools, the University of Wisconsin, the Department of Safety and Professional Services, and law enforcement. She is known for her efforts to shut down a Kenosha Unified School District board meeting in 2021 as a member of Moms for Liberty. Nedweski and others appeared at the meeting, holding signs that read, among other things, “We do not co-parent with the government.”

Would the UW System’s $855 million budget request bring Wisconsin closer to the national average?

PolitiFact

UW System President Jay Rothman defended his agency’s $855 million budget request by saying it “gets (Wisconsin) up to average” and steps up from its low ranking. Rothman is correct that Wisconsin ranks 43rd in the country when it comes to funding public, four-year universities.

Rothman’s math also adds up. Subtracting Wisconsin’s revenue per student from the national average, then multiplying it by the total number of students in the system, does total $457 million.

We rate Rothman’s claim True.

Wisconsin departments request 8.8% spending increase to $53.8B next fiscal year

Washington Examiner

Wisconsin state agencies have requested to spend $53.8 billion next fiscal year and $55.8 billion in fiscal 2026-27 in the state’s upcoming biennial budget.

Those are increases from the adjusted base of $49.4 billion this fiscal year with a large portion of that increase coming from the Department of Public Instruction’s $3 billion requested increase and Gov. Tony Evers’ proposed $800 million increase for the University of Wisconsin System.

Despite smaller majority, Robin Vos pledges to pass tax cuts, shrink government

Wisconsin State Journal

Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, who was reelected to her leadership position Tuesday, said the new districts provide “a pathway to a majority in 2026.” Hesselbein, D-Middleton, said Senate Democrats will make a renewed push to spend some of the state’s surplus on K-12 education, public universities, workforce needs and middle-class tax cuts.