MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed switch to a self-insurance plan for state workers was expected to be rejected Thursday by the Wisconsin Legislature’s budget-writing committee, a defeat for the governor that would force lawmakers to find $60 million in savings elsewhere.
As more professors from University of Wisconsin system leave for other institutions, the UW Regents are calling on lawmakers to invest more funding into faculty pay raises and updating facilities slow the exodus.
The chancellors of several UW campuses, along with System President Ray Cross, asked legislators during a meeting of the Board of Regents at UW-Milwaukee to increase funding for building maintenance and construction in the 2017-19 budget, and to provide $78 million to boost compensation for workers.
SOMERS — University of Wisconsin-Parkside officials are “cautiously optimistic” about the direction the state Legislature is moving in regarding state aid to the University of Wisconsin System, but there’s still a ways to go.
Wisconsin lawmakers who favor increasing revenue for transportation projects should be willing to consider moving the state to a self-insurance system, Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday.
A slate of Republican-authored changes to the state budget includes new rules to ensure University of Wisconsin System chancellors can come from non-academic backgrounds and a requirement that lawmakers weigh in before any taxpayer money can be sent to UW- Oshkosh’s troubled private foundation.
A slate of Republican-authored changes to the state budget includes new rules to ensure University of Wisconsin System chancellors can come from non-academic backgrounds and a requirement that lawmakers weigh in before any taxpayer money can be sent to UW- Oshkosh’s troubled private foundation.
UW System schools may have to change the way they use segregated fees after state lawmakers approved a measure Thursday requiring the Board of Regents to revise fee policies.
The Walker administration continued its push Friday for moving state employees to self-insurance, despite Republican lawmakers saying they plan to reject the change.
The Republican-controlled Legislature’s budget committee has rejected Gov. Scott Walker’s call to cut University of Wisconsin tuition by 5 percent.
Tuition at UW System schools will remain frozen for the next two years under a proposal approved by the state’s Joint Finance Committee setting the budget for the state’s public universities.
The Legislature’s budget-writing committee rejected Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed University of Wisconsin System tuition cut Thursday, choosing instead to keep rates frozen for another two years.
The Legislature’s budget committee on Thursday approved freezing resident tuition at University of Wisconsin schools for two more years, discarding Gov. Scott Walker’s plans to cut it.
Students in the University of Wisconsin System will not get the tuition cut Gov. Scott Walker proposed but will have flat tuition bills for the next two years under changes the state’s budget committee approved Thursday.
The Legislature’s budget-writing committee on Thursday rejected Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to cut tuition at University of Wisconsin schools, opting instead to extend a tuition freeze for the next two years.
A UW-Madison research center named after Wisconsin’s longest-serving governor will be well worth its $3 million price tag if it improves the university’s frayed relationship with the Legislature.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Legislature’s budget-writing committee rejected Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed University of Wisconsin System tuition cut Thursday, choosing instead to keep rates frozen for another two years.
The comments come as Walker’s budget clashes with his GOP legislative colleagues are heating up. Another point of contention for the state’s next two-year budget is whether to cut tuition at UW System schools, as Walker proposes.
Rep. Katrina Shankland, D-Stevens Point, said she and other Democrats will be advocating for some $500 million in additional investment and two years of free college education when the Joint Finance Committee takes up funding for the University of Wisconsin Thursday.
A new public policy center at University of Wisconsin-Madison named for former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson is a great idea, said Donald Moynihan, director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs on campus.
Wisconsin lawmakers are deciding whether to reward UW System schools based on how they perform. And experts say the idea has its share of pros and cons.
Republicans who control the Legislature’s powerful finance committee are now saying they expect to vote on the University of Wisconsin System budget later this week.
In other words, funding models that encourage all universities to hit the same performance targets won’t be as successful. Rather, Snyder says, goals should be tailored to each individual school, because for instance, UW-Madison offers something different than UW-Milwaukee, than UW-Oshkosh.
The legislature’s Joint Finance Committee didn’t vote on the performance-based funding proposal as expected Tuesday, but it’s something they’ll need to address moving forward.
Republicans who control the Legislature’s powerful finance committee are now saying they expect to vote on the University of Wisconsin System budget later this week.
A new leadership center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will be named for Republican former Gov. Tommy Thompson, the longest serving governor in the state of Wisconsin.
Gov. Scott Walker and fellow Wisconsin Republicans on Tuesday announced the formation of a new public policy center at the state’s flagship university, which liberals said would be nothing more than a taxpayer-funded conservative think tank.
A proposed new research center at UW-Madison named for former Gov. Tommy Thompson would connect academic experts with lawmakers to improve public policy and inspire the next generation of political leaders, according to Republican and university leaders who announced the initiative Tuesday.
Assembly and Senate Republicans are clashing over whether to cut University of Wisconsin System tuition in the next biennial budget, though they said Tuesday there won’t be a tuition increase.
The Republican-led Joint Finance Committee will delay a scheduled vote on the University of Wisconsin System’s budget amid a disagreement over Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to cut tuition by 5 percent.
Democrats on the Wisconsin Legislature’s budget committee on Tuesday reintroduced an oft-rejected proposal that would allow student loans to be refinanced at lower interest rates. It was met with resistance once again by the committee’s Republican majority.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Legislature’s powerful finance committee postponed votes Tuesday on the University of Wisconsin System’s budget until later this week as Republican lawmakers quarreled behind closed doors over whether to adopt Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to reduce tuition.
Republicans who control the Legislature’s powerful finance committee are now saying they expect to vote on the University of Wisconsin System budget later this week.
Republicans who run state government revealed a new fissure over the state budget Tuesday, this one involving Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to cut tuition for in-state students at University of Wisconsin System campuses.
The Legislature’s budget committee is to decide Tuesday whether to go along with Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to cut college tuition – an idea key lawmakers have been reluctant to embrace.
Gov. Scott Walker, in another sign of escalating tension with fellow Republicans who control the Legislature, vowed Monday to take the unprecedented step of vetoing the entire $76 billion state budget if it raises property taxes on homeowners.
University of Wisconsin System students would save hundreds of dollars on tuition and campuses would have to compete for additional state dollars under provisions in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget up for votes Tuesday in the Legislature’s powerful finance committee.
The Joint Finance Committee is in the midst of rewriting Walker’s budget before sending it on to the full Senate and Assembly for votes. The committee’s work is key because the panel essentially finalizes the spending plan. Rarely does the Senate or Assembly make further changes to the document before sending it back to the governor, who signs it into law. Walker can use his partial-veto power to make changes to whatever lands on his desk.
The Legislature’s finance committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday on pieces of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget for the University of Wisconsin System, including his plan to cut tuition across all UW campuses.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — University of Wisconsin System students would save hundreds of dollars on tuition and campuses would have to compete for additional state dollars under provisions in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget up for votes Tuesday in the Legislature’s powerful finance committee.
The Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget committee ditched Gov. Scott Walker’s proposals to cut a century-old labor review commission and freeze technical college tuition.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed tuition freeze for technical college students was rejected on Thursday by the Legislature’s Republican-led budget committee.
The committee instead opted to set aside $5 million over the course of the two-year budget for the need-based Wisconsin Grants financial aid program.
The move frees up $2.5 million per year to be spent elsewhere in the budget.
“The metrics that might work for UW-Madison or UW-Eau Claire or UW-La Crosse are not the metrics that are going to work at UW-Parkside,” Ford said. “We want to make sure all students are counted and we feel like we’ve been heard. Every time we go into a legislature’s office, they say they know one size doesn’t fit all.”
My wife, Marianne, and I are proud investors in Wisconsin’s largest economic engine: the world-class University of Wisconsin System.
Walker has said he’d be willing to look at more spending from the state’s main account — which also pays for K-12 schools, the University of Wisconsin, prisons, Medicaid and other government operations — to help pay for roads. The transportation fund currently is mostly made up of money from the gas tax and vehicle registration fees.
The Republican leaders of the Legislature’s budget committee plan to reject Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to self-insure state employees, but find other ways to try to save money under the existing system.
A new scholarship program could help retain Wisconsin’s “best and brightest,” at University of Wisconsin System campuses.
Governor Scott Walker is calling on lawmakers to approve a self-insurance model for state employees.
Column: Kim Krautkramer is now a third-year medical student at UW-Madison, pursuing a dual doctorate (M.D.-Ph.D.) in the medical scientist training program.
With a K-12 school aid increase on solid ground, a University of Wisconsin tuition cut in serious jeopardy and a solution to road funding still elusive, the Legislature’s budget-writing committee will come together Monday to begin voting on the two-year spending plan.
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau is expected to provide updated revenue projections in May. That could provide additional revenue without having to reduce Walker’s proposed increases in K-12 and college funding.
A key UW-related budget proposal may be in danger, as several Republican lawmakers have voiced opposition to Gov. Scott Walker’s five percent tuition cut proposal for the state’s public universities.
The co-chairman of the Legislature’s powerful budget-writing committee says he is open to ending the freeze on University of Wisconsin System tuition in the next two years.
“We’ve made difficult budget reductions at UW-Eau Claire, while doing our up most to try and protect the student experience,” said UW-Eau Claire Chancellor James Schmidt.
Schmidt was one of dozens of education leaders who made a plea to legislators to keep education a top priority in the state budget.
“There is no doubt that the three UW system campuses, including the three universities in this part of the state, Eau Claire, River Falls and Stout, are key to the future success of the State of Wisconsin,” Schmidt said.
UW-Stout Provost Patrick Guilfoile told the committee there is a need to raise the salaries of university faculty and staff to “attract new hires and to stop the exodus of valued employees from UW-Stout.”
“I hope this committee will find a way to support a pay increase for our employees because the quality of our faculty and staff make all the difference in the quality of education that we can offer our students, and competitive salaries help ensure we recruit and retain outstanding faculty and staff,” he said.
“We can’t freeze tuition forever,” Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, told the Wisconsin State Journal, making him the second member of the Joint Finance Committee to indicate interest in allowing limited UW tuition increases.
Letter to the editor: The University of Wisconsin is a vital resource for all Wisconsinites. Through educating our citizens and conducting important research, the university lays the foundation for a bright future for Wisconsin. While doing so, it creates thousands of jobs and millions of dollars of income. But because of budget cuts over the past decades, it has become increasingly difficult for young people to afford a UW education, and the university has slipped out of the top five research institutions in the country. To secure Wisconsin’s future, more money must be allocated to the University of Wisconsin.
University of Wisconsin President Ray Cross is asking legislators to allow the Board of Regents to set system performance standards.
Shifting state worker health benefits to a self-insurance model may not save $60 million as planned, and could increase costs by reducing competition, a UW-Madison business professor said Thursday.
System President Ray Cross and UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said Thursday that letting the Board of Regents decide how to measure UW institutions would be more effective.
Don’t expect major changes any time soon for the University of Wisconsin-Extension – not in programming, not in personnel, and not in the amount of money that counties will need to contribute to keep their Extension offices operating.
