U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, says the governor?s arguments that he has helped college students with a tuition freeze is ?putting lipstick on the pig.?
Pocan: Walker?s tuition freeze ?lipstick on the pig?
Badger Herald
Category: State budget
On Politics: Gov. Scott Walker unveils plan on jobs, benefits and education
Wisconsin State Journal
Plans include continuing the freeze on University of Wisconsin System tuition and expanding the Flexible Option.
Paul Fanlund: In year two, the spotlight will land on UW?s Rebecca Blank
Capital Times
When Rebecca Blank moved into her corner Bascom Hall office last summer, the University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor also stepped into a state political environment rife with ill feelings and mistrust that, in recent years, had washed over onto campus affairs.
Governor Walker visits students at UW-L and highlights two-year
WXOW-TV, LaCrosse
La Crosse, WI (WXOW) – Governor Scott Walker met with students today at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse to highlight the two year tuition freeze.
Walker pushes UW tuition freeze, downplays deficit
Green Bay Press-Gazette
Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday promised to continue a tuition freeze at University of Wisconsin campuses and asked students to vote for him in the upcoming November election.
State structural deficit approaches $1.8 billion
Wisconsin State Journal
The state faces a nearly $1.8 billion structural deficit heading into the next biennial budget cycle, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported Monday.
LFB: Declining revenue pushes structural deficit projection to $1.8 billion
Declining state revenues are expected to push the state?s structural deficit to almost $1.8 billion for the 2015-17 biennium, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported Monday.
State faces $281 million budget shortfall
Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin tax collections for the past year came in 2 percent short of estimates, the state Department of Revenue reported Thursday, news that won?t require immediate emergency action by the Legislature but that puts the state?s budget on track to be out of balance next year.
Tax collections fall $218 million short of estimates
Wisconsin Radio Network
Democrats see problems for Governor Walker in the latest state revenue estimates. Revenues are off by $281 million for 2014, according to tax collection numbers released by the state Department of Revenue.
Tax Collections Fall Short, Possibly Creating Future Budget Problems
Wisconsin Public Radio
The latest numbers from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue show tax revenues lagged expectations by $281 million last fiscal year, sending the state?s two-year budget into a projected shortfall.
UW regents OK $95 million budget request
WISC-TV 3
The University of Wisconsin System?s Board of Regents has approved asking Gov. Scott Walker for $95 million in additional tax dollars in the next state budget.
UW regents OK $95 million budget request
WKOW-TV 27
The University of Wisconsin System?s Board of Regents has approved asking Gov. Scott Walker for $95 million in additional tax dollars in the next state budget.
UW regents OK $95 million budget increase request
Madison.com
MADISON, Wis. (AP) ? The University of Wisconsin System?s regents on Thursday approved asking Gov. Scott Walker for $95 million in additional tax dollars in the state?s next two-year budget after system President Ray Cross assured them the money would help boost the state?s economy.
Uw System Regents Ok Budget Hike Request Section
MADISON (AP) ? The University of Wisconsin System?s regents on Thursday approved asking Gov. Scott Walker for $95 million in additional tax dollars in the state?s next two-year budget after system President Ray Cross assured them the money would help boost the state?s economy.
UW System President Asks For Funding To Start ”Talent Development Initiative’
Wisconsin Public Radio
University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross says more resources are needed to transform the state?s higher education system into a bigger driver of the state?s economy, a request that comes at a time when Gov. Scott Walker says no new revenues will be available.
UW Board approves $95 million request
Wisconsin Radio Network
University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approves a request for an additional $95 million in the next two-year state budget.
UW plans to ask for $95 million boost in next budget
Wisconsin State Journal
New University of Wisconsin System president Ray Cross plans to ask lawmakers for a $95 million funding increase in the next two-year budget cycle to pay for some new initiatives and continue others that he said will help power up the statewide system?s economic development engine.
UW System seeks $95.2 million boost in state funding
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The University of Wisconsin System would seek a $95.2 million boost in state funding for a new initiative to more closely align education and research with the economic needs of the state, under a biennial budget proposal from UW System President Ray Cross.
UW wants $95 million increase in next state budget
AP
University of Wisconsin System officials want Gov. Scott Walker to give them an additional $95 million in tax dollars in the next state budget to fund a new plan to create jobs, boost graduation numbers and deal with a tuition freeze.
UW Regents contemplate requesting $95 million in state budget
Wisconsin Radio Network
The UW Board of Regents could decide today whether to ask for another $95 million in the next two-year state budget.
Funding shortfalls deny state aid to 41,000 eligible Wisconsin college students
Capital Times
Shortfalls in state funding meant that more than 41,000 Wisconsin students did not receive need-based financial aid for which they were eligible, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau reports.
When does the University of Wisconsin cease to be a public university?
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Sadly, as I enter my senior of college, I?m watching my current school, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, become Whitefish Bay High ? a great public school that promises success after graduation but whose access is determined less and less by a student?s hard work and innate ability and more than ever before by a student?s capacity to pay for school.
Analysis: More state employees received merit pay in 2013, but for less
Madison.com
UW-Madison paid out the most of any agency, approving 1,743 payments worth about $6 million. The average payment at UW-Madison represented about a 7.8 percent increase over the employee?s prior salary. Spokesman Bob Lavigna attributed the higher spending to the university?s large budget and said the school spent about the same percent of its budget on merit raises as Corrections did.
The State of Politics: Republicans Kill Covenant Grants for College Students
While the record $1.2 trillion in student loan debt has attracted election-year calls for reform in Madison and Washington, D.C., Wisconsin is ending a program that has helped students like Toshia Spindler go to UW-La Crosse.
Cut UW tuition AND student loan debt
Capital Times
A tuition freeze at a time when higher education is too costly is at best a Band-Aid, not a cure. If elected officials and UW System administrators are serious, they must address the onerous burden created by student loan debt, as President Obama and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., are attempting to do at the federal level.
Health Sense: Should Wisconsin spend more on public health?
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: Susan Zahner, associate professor of nursing; Patrick Remington, associate dean for public health (SMPH).
UW students likely to see another two-year tuition freeze, says president Ray Cross
Wisconsin State Journal
The extended tuition freeze would mark another significant departure from recent practice at the System. Prior to the tuition freeze mandated by the Republican-controlled state Legislature starting with the 2013-2014 school year, the System had hiked tuition at four-year campuses 5.5 percent annually in each of the previous six years, the maximum annual increase allowed by law. System spokesman John Diamond said Wednesday that tuition now is viewed as ?a revenue source of last resort.?
Finance committee OKs college system’s budget plan
Madison.com
The Legislature?s finance committee approved a new policy governing University of Wisconsin System surpluses on Tuesday, wrapping up a nasty clash between Republicans and UW officials over the system?s massive balances.
Finance committee to consider UW surplus plan
Madison.com
The Legislature?s finance committee is set to vote on the University of Wisconsin System?s new policy for reporting surpluses.
Mary Burke says tax increase for arena a last resort
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Burke said she wants to hold the line on tuition increases in the University of Wisconsin System. The system is already under a two-year tuition freeze, but Burke disagreed with Walker’s recent proposal for an additional two-year freeze.
Joel McNally: Scott Walker’s bad ideas put state on the wrong road
Capital Times
To any thoughtful observer of politics, one of the biggest frustrations is watching is just how politically popular some really bad ideas can be. A perfect example is Republican Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to freeze tuition increases within the University of Wisconsin System for four straight years.
Tuition freeze threatens UW Colleges survival — Mary Hoeft
Wisconsin State Journal
Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to extend his tuition freeze on all universities within the UW System threatens the survival of one of Wisconsin?s most cost-effective universities, the UW Colleges.
UW-Madison professors propose making first two years of college free
Daily Cardinal
Students could have their first two years of public university paid for by the state, according to a plan proposed by University of Wisconsin-Madison professors.
Gov. Scott Walker calls for additional 2-year UW tuition freeze
Wisconsin State Journal
Gov. Scott Walker on Friday called for extending a tuition freeze at the University of Wisconsin System by two years, citing new figures that show the System should end this fiscal year with $1.1 billion left over.
Credit state for showing checkbook
Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin just jumped from fourth worst to sixth best in the nation for letting the public peruse its checkbook.
Mark Pitsch: Open those cookies, and more
Wisconsin State Journal
The Sunshine Week fortune cookies and their messages serve as a reminder to those elected or appointed to do the public?s business that they work for you ? the voting and taxpaying public. UW-Madison and the UW System did not always remember this wisdom.
Tom Still: Tech-based innovation across America: Wisconsin is far from alone
Wisconsin State Journal
The SSTI (State Science and Technology Institute) praised the UW-Madison?s investment in its ?Discovery to Product? initiative to help move good ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace. That?s an idea funded, in part, by the Legislature?s UW System Incentive Grants. Only this month, the UW System and WEDC announced creation of a $2 million fund to help transfer technology from other system campuses.
UW-Madison vote coming soon on student support for $223 million rec sports upgrades
Wisconsin State Journal
Students will vote in March on a referendum to increase a fee future Badgers pay for recreational sports facilities to pay for $223 million in renovations and expansions to the campus? aging fields, gyms, pools and tracks. The proposal was explained Thursday to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents capital planning and budget committee.
Student loan refinancing bill draws packed hearing, questions about its effectiveness
Wisconsin State Journal
Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, said about 763,000 Wisconsin residents are burdened by student loan debt. Passing the legislation, which he called the first of its kind nationally, would provide an incentive for graduates of state colleges to remain in Wisconsin after graduation.
Nick Bezier: Tuition freeze puts UW’s future at risk
Last year, when the tuition freeze was announced by Gov. Scott Walker in La Crosse, like most students, I was excited. … But diving deeper into the numbers, students have to take this freeze with a grain of salt.
Chris Rickert: Deficits and politicians are a threat to Medicaid — but not to tax cuts
Wisconsin State Journal
?Research suggests that supply-side economics ? where a tax cut actually generates more revenue ? doesn?t really hold true,? said UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden.
State revenues projected to be more than $900 million better than expected
Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin?s finances are more than $900 million stronger through mid-2015 than previously expected, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported Thursday.
Report: Much of UW 2012 reserves committed
AP
MADISON ? University of Wisconsin System officials planned to spend a large chunk of their 2012 reserves on several items including scholarships, construction projects and staff salaries, according to a state report.
Paul Fanlund: From an Oshkosh perspective, the case against Scott Walker
Capital Times
Rebecca Blank, new UW-Madison chancellor, noted recently that state support has slipped to 15 percent of overall UW-Madison spending. But, says Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris, with Walker in power, she and other UW officials must tread carefully: ?They can?t afford to take them on head-on.? (Also refers to research by Kathy Cramer.)
UW-Madison Dairy Research Center to be Renovated
Wisconsin Ag Connection
Future students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s dairy and meat science program can look forward to learning in a state of the art facility. On Wednesday, Governor Scott Walker announced renovation plans for the The Babcock Hall, Center for Dairy Research, and the Meat Science and Muscle Biology Laboratory. The work is expected to be completed by 2018.
Scott Walker: Renovations to proceed at UW dairy, meat science buildings
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Before auctioning off cattle, pigs and sheep at the governor?s annual blue ribbon livestock auction at the Wisconsin State Fair, Gov. Scott Walker announced Wednesday that proposed renovations of University of Wisconsin-Madison buildings for dairy and meat science research will go forward as planned.
Regents president says UW System needs to improve relations with lawmakers
WisPolitics.com
University of Wisconsin Board of Regents President Mike Falbo says UW System officials need to improve relations with legislators following a tense budget session.
Scott Walker’s structural deficit
Capital Times
?A lot of people use the term structural deficit and they define it in different ways,? says Andrew Reschovsky, an economist at UW-Madison?s La Follette School of Public Affairs.
Editorial: University of Wisconsin being micromanaged? Absolutely
Appleton Post-Crescent
In their meeting last month, some members of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents lamented that the state Legislature was micromanaging the board.
Editorial: Keep pressure on UW system
Gov. Scott Walker and members of the legislature ordered a tuition freeze in the University of Wisconsin system after it was discovered more than three-quarters of a billion dollars had been secretly piling up in surplus cash.
UW Begins Work On New System For Tracking Financial Reserves
Wisconsin Public Radio News
When Republicans released a Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo this spring showing that the UW had hundreds of millions in reserves, they attacked it for hiding the money and for holding too much of it. In the budget that?s now law, Republicans directed the UW to come up with a new system for tracking its reserves.
Ward warns of problems posed by tuition freezes
Wisconsin Radio Network
The outgoing head of the UW-Madison says University System officials should be cautious about freezing tuition in the future.
UW collaborations under scrutiny
Isthmus
In vetoing a last-minute budget provision to boot the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism off the UW-Madison campus, Gov. Scott Walker didn?t pan the effort as much as its narrow scope.
UW separating from WiscNet
Wisconsin Radio Network
A nonprofit group which provides Internet services to school districts, libraries and other public-sector entities expects to maintain a viable business model, despite the loss of its largest customer, the University of Wisconsin System.
WiscNet leaders vow to forge on without UW System contract
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Leaders of of WiscNet, the Internet service provider the University of Wisconsin System dropped last month, told state senators Monday they are confident that the company will be able to continue providing services to public schools and libraries despite the loss of 27% of its revenue without the university business.
Investigative journalism center to remain on UW-Madison campus
Daily Cardinal
Gov. Scott Walker vetoed a clause in the 2013-15 state budget Sunday that would have forced the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism out of its space on the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s campus and prohibited faculty from collaborating with it.
How Wisconsin’s watchdogs kept their home
Columbia Journalism Review
DETROIT, MI ? The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism scored a big win over the weekend, as Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, vetoed a budget provision approved by GOP legislators that would have expelled the nonprofit newsroom from its offices at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The measure, passed in early June at the conclusion of a marathon overnight session, also would have prohibited university employees from doing any work related to the WCIJ.
Blum: A Win for Journalism and Democracy in Wisconsin
Wired
Last week, I wrote here about a move by the GOP-dominated Wisconsin legislature to shut down an investigative reporting center which works with the journalism school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Walker Reverses Eviction Of Investigative Journalism Center
Wisconsin Public Radio News
Gov. Scott Walker vetoed a budget provision that would have ejected the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism from its office in a University of Wisconsin-Madison building.
UPDATE: Gov. Walker signs state budget – WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports
WKOW-TV 27
After 57 vetoes, Governor Scott Walker has signed the Wisconsin state budget. The Sunday afternoon signing ceremony took place at a Pleasant Prairie business called Catalyst Exhibits.