Six months after Gov. Scott Walker and Republican legislators required state workers to pay more for health care and pensions, what are those changes costing those workers?Depending on their pay, between $2,828 and $8,428 more a year, according to a recent Legislative Fiscal Bureau report requested by three Madison-area legislators who each represent thousands of state workers.
The state must reinvest in its universities to meet ambitious goals of boosting its number of college graduates, University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly said Thursday.
Just last year, the UW System set its sights on increasing the number of college-degree holders in the state by 30% over the next 15 years – a cumulative increase of 80,000 degree holders by 2025 – in an effort to lure companies and boost Wisconsin?s economy. But then state funding for the UW System was cut $250 million for the 2011-?13 fiscal years.
Gov. Scott Walker considered cutting the pay of all public workers at the same time he was crafting his budget proposal that forced them to contribute more for their pension and health care benefits, an email obtained by The Associated Press under the state?s open records law shows. The email, sent Dec. 8 by policy director Ryan Murray, also asks the budget director how much could be saved through the maximum allowable eligibility and benefit cuts to Medicaid.U ltimately, Walker didn?t call for a pay cut as part of his budget that required public workers to pay 12.4 percent of their health care benefits and 5.8 percent of their pensions. In fact, when rolling out his plan, Walker attempted to sell it by noting that he wasn?t cutting salaries, imposing any furlough days or calling for layoffs.
Although the state Legislature axed a plan to split UW-Madison from the University of Wisconsin System from the state budget, it called for the creation of a “Special Task Force” to study the UW System. Only one public appointment has been made to the 17-member task force. A bill has been introduced to delay the due date of the task force?s findings from Jan. 1, 2012, to Jan. 7, 2013.
The UW-Madison Employee Assistance Office is offering three, free sessions entitled, “Financial Strategies When Your Income Drops.” Presented by Deb Neubauer, of the UW-Extension Financial Education Center, she will offer strategies on goal-setting, new spending plans, and re-evaluating your financial situation.
The University of Wisconsin regents agreed Thursday to shift certain powers from the UW System to its 26 campuses, a move made necessary by budget cuts and staff layoffs. The Board of Regents passed a pair of proposals by unanimous voice vote. The first allowed the campuses to take on some of the oversight authority currently provided by the UW System. The other offered a plan for staff downsizing in response to a $2.46 million budget cut for the UW System Administration.
The UW Board of Regents approved two proposals Thursday that will help University of Wisconsin System administration cut its budget by shifting power to individual campuses. Regent President Michael Spector called it “the most significant restructuring in the 40 years since the System itself was formed.”
The University of Wisconsin System can help absorb millions of dollars in budget cuts by transferring some of its authority to its 26 campuses and chancellors, according to a recent report commissioned by the UW System president. The UW System must reduce its operating budget by $2.4 million per year and cut 51 full-time positions under Gov. Scott Walker?s two-year state budget. In response, UW System President Kevin Reilly asked a committee to advise him on how to deal with the cuts. The report?s authors responded by suggesting a fundamental shift _ distributing power from the UW System out to the campuses, according to a Wisconsin State Journal report.
UW System administration should relax its grip on the 26 University of Wisconsin campuses and give individual chancellors more authority, according to a new report. The recommendations are in large part motivated by necessity: UW System must reduce its operating budget by $2.4 million a year and eliminate 51 full-time positions under Gov. Scott Walker?s two-year state budget. The report is the result of a committee that UW System President Kevin Reilly convened to evaluate the role of UW System and advise him on how to make those cuts. The committee included campus representatives and members of the UW Board of Regents. The report?s authors describe the need for a fundamental shift from a centralized model to one that distributes more power to the campuses.
When students return Thursday for the first day of school across Wisconsin, many familiar faces will be gone, as teachers chose retirement over coming back in the wake of a new law that forces them to pay more for benefits while taking away most of their collective bargaining rights. Documents obtained by The Associated Press under the state?s open records law show that about twice as many public school teachers decided to hang it up in the first half of this year as in each of the past two full years, part of a mass exit of public employees. Teachers weren?t the only ones heading for the exits. State agency retirements were particularly dramatic, nearly tripling from 747 in all of 2010 to 1,966 through June. Retirements from the University of Wisconsin System more than doubled, up from 480 last year to 1,091 this year. All told, 9,933 public workers had retired by the end of June, a 93 percent increase from 5,133 in 2010. The year before, there were 4,876 retirements.
Six months after some UW Health doctors wrote questionable sick notes for protesters rallying against Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to limit public sector collective bargaining, UW-Madison hasn?t finished disciplining the doctors.
As union members proclaim “solidarity,” the state?s new law prohibiting collective bargaining is hitting public employee pocketbooks this week. The state started making payroll deductions for pensions and health insurance for tens of thousands of employees Thursday, and some municipalities and school districts will do so for more employees on Friday. Most state employees, except State Patrol troopers and inspectors, began paying 5.8 percent of their earnings for their pensions. They?re also paying 12.6 percent of health care premiums. Sandy Rindy, a union member who has worked at UW-Madison for 30 years, most of it as a payroll and benefit specialist, said deductions will have a real impact, especially for those living paycheck to paycheck and single parents struggling with day care and health care costs.
Members of the Teaching Assistants Association representing University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate students and its UW-Milwaukee counterpart voted by undisclosed margins not to seek a formal election to keep their official status with the state, top leaders for the two groups said.
Citing high costs, sluggish Internet speeds on public computers and limited bandwidth for researchers, University of Wisconsin System officials are building a $37 million high-speed Internet network across the state ? a web of fiber stretching from Wausau to Superior. But a legal challenge is raising questions about the need and appropriateness of that effort. The telecommunications industry is suing to stop the project, arguing it not only violates state law, but it?s duplicative and a waste of public resources.
The 3,000-member teaching assistants union at UW-Madison has voted narrowly against seeking official state certification under a controversial new law that prohibits most collective bargaining for most public sector employees. Under the law signed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker, teachers and other public workers would need to vote for their unions each year in order to bargain for cost-of-living raises. The law no longer allows negotiations on working conditions, benefits or anything else.
Control of the state Senate – now up for grabs in recall elections – could affect issues ranging from a possible voucher school expansion in Green Bay to proposed cuts in state health care programs serving more than 1 million Wisconsin residents.
But the recall elections won?t immediately affect the issue that gave rise to them – union bargaining by public workers, legislative leaders said.
That?s because Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans who control the Assembly would ensure that the controversial repeal of most collective bargaining remains in place through this year, even if Democrats do manage to take back the Senate.
The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance broke down the $64.3 billion state budget, which the Republican governor signed into law in late June. Among its findings, the nonprofit research group calculated a 3.8 percent cut in state support for the University of Wisconsin System.
UW System president Kevin Reilly is talking about what $340-million in state budget cuts will mean to the system. UW System president Kevin Reilly says that the cuts for the 2011-2013 biennium will have a big impact on individual campuses.
Sandwiched between Klinke Cleaners and Check ?n Go in a strip mall in Sun Prairie is one of the biggest financial players in Wisconsin?s historic round of recall elections. But don?t be fooled by the 1223 W. Main St., #304 address. The conservative, pro-business Wisconsin Club for Growth boasts no posh suite, just a simple mailbox at a UPS store. While its office presence may be lacking, its political influence is not.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison professor of political science
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, a professor of public affairs and applied economics at UW-Madison
A Dane County judge has ruled against a telecommunications company that wanted to slow down a broadband project in rural communities. The University of Wisconsin System and others were awarded more than $37 million in grants for the project. Its goal is to deliver telecommunications capabilities to schools, hospitals and emergency services. But Wisconsin Independent Telecommunications Systems, which operates as Access Wisconsin, filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the project.
Quoted: UW-Madison Professor Andrew Reschovsky, an economist specializing in school finance.
No matter how vocal the opposition, the state?s new Republican leadership rarely blinks when pushing through measures it deems important. Return federal high-speed rail money? Check. Slash public sector unions? rights? Done. Implement a voter ID bill? No problem.
So, when members of the Republican-led Joint Finance Committee inserted language into their version of the state budget that would have been a boon to state telecommunications providers and a blow to decades-old investments made by University of Wisconsin institutions to help deliver and expand Internet access to entities such as schools and libraries, people across Wisconsin reached for the panic button.
Interim UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward named Mark Bugher, the director of University Research Park, as his special assistant, the university announced in a news release Monday. Bugher won?t be paid for assisting Ward and will continue to lead University Research Park, the university said.
Bugher is expected to advise the chancellor on everything from strategic priorities and political issues to the challenges of implementing newly awarded administrative flexibilities, which were granted to the university in the 2011-13 state budget.
One out of about every 14 public employees in the Wisconsin Retirement System asked for “the numbers” – estimates of what their pensions would be if they retired – in the first half of this year.
A new report from the Department of Employee Trust Funds, which runs the pension system, says the 18,759 state and local government workers who asked what their pension would be was 75% more than those who made the same request in the same period last year.
In one of her final acts as UW-Madison chancellor, Biddy Martin wants to set aside $2.3 million so that low- and middle-income students won?t have to pay a proposed 5.5 percent tuition increase. Martin sent a letter to the Board of Regents and UW System President Kevin Reilly on Friday seeking approval to use money from a 2011-12 tuition hike so that families with annual household incomes of less than $80,000 won?t have to pay the increase. Reilly responded Tuesday, letting Martin know the UW regents won?t set tuition and vote on the operating budget until Thursday and it would be ?inappropriate to pre-empt that action.?
None of the six placeholder or “fake” Democratic Senate candidates pulled off an upset victory during the first round of a historic recall election season in Wisconsin Tuesday. But then again, few expected they would.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison professor of political science
Outgoing University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said Gov. Scott Walker?s union bargaining legislation may have made it difficult to pass a measure backed by both leaders that would have given the university more independence.
A new initiative to reform how Wisconsin schools are held accountable could lead to the development of a national model, similar to welfare reform in the 1990s, according to a leading UW-Madison education researcher. But the effort, announced over the weekend by Gov. Scott Walker and State Superintendent Tony Evers, could be hampered by an intensely partisan political climate in which school funding has been slashed by hundreds of millions of dollars, education advocates said Monday.
Quoted: Adam Gamoran, professor of sociology and director of the Wisconsin Education Research Center at UW-Madison
Buoyed by successes in the just-signed state budget, abortion foes say they have the numbers and momentum to push a more sweeping agenda. Pro-Life Wisconsin?s top legislative priority is a law that would prohibit the sale and use of any human fetal body part, such as a cell, tissue or organ. Sande said the law is needed to prevent parts of aborted fetuses from being used in research, which he said has been done at UW-Madison.UW-Madison and UW Health issued a joint statement in response saying, in part, “Limiting or barring access to legally and ethically obtained research materials would compromise the ability of scientists to find new drugs and therapies to treat serious diseases.”
Prospective politicians, college students, business owners, state workers and commuters all will face a new world when the new state budget takes effect Friday. The Republican-crafted spending plan reshapes all corners of Wisconsin life, from how much Medicaid will cost to auto title loans to honoring former President Ronald Reagan to even drinking alcohol at the movies. If you?re a University of Wisconsin student, start saving your pennies. The budget allows the UW Board of Regents to increase tuition by up to 5.5 percent beginning with the fall semester.
“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar?s, and unto God the things that are God?s.” ? Jesus People who know a lot more about the Bible and ancient history than I do disagree about what, exactly, Jesus meant by this. But I don?t think I?m too far off in assuming he saw a distinction between the secular and nonsecular worlds and believed people should behave accordingly. As applied to Gov. Scott Walker?s veto of a provision in the state budget that would have forced Madison?s Pres House Apartments to pay taxes, I think Caesar might be owed some money. Pres House is the attractive 51-unit student housing development opened near Library Mall in 2007 and owned by the Presbyterian student center at UW-Madison.
After months of protest marches, court hearings, and marathon legislative sessions, Governor Scott Walker?s law that rolls back the ability to collectively bargain for many state workers officially takes effect today. It?s been a historic journey for the measure to get to this point, as it has worked its way through the Legislature and the courts in a battle like no other in recent memory. It has left many in the state divided and will likely impact the political landscape of Wisconsin for the next several years.
From Green Bay to Fond du Lac, Oshkosh and beyond, those involved in the movement to remove their legislators who sided with Walker say it is their constitutional right to take action, and while they may not be hoisting signs and walking around the Capitol, they are working to change the makeup of those who serve within it.
Quoted: Dennis Dresang, UW-Madison professor emeritus of political science
Gov. Scott Walker said Monday he should have done more to prepare the public for his plan to eliminate most collective bargaining for public employees.
“We had not built enough of the case” for the sweeping plan, Walker said during a wide-ranging session with Journal Sentinel reporters and editors.
The collective bargaining law, which goes into effect Wednesday, will allow future bargaining only on wages with increases capped at the rate of inflation. It also will require annual certification votes on union representation and bar deduction of union dues from public workers? paychecks.
UW System will no longer deduct membership fees from the paychecks of employees who are part of membership organizations such as the UW-Madison faculty group PROFS, or the academic staff group ASPRO.
Gov. Scott Walker vowed Monday to keep pushing for his plan to split off UW-Madison from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System, even after the state Legislature axed it from the two-year state budget. The state Legislature commissioned a special 17-member task force to study the structure of UW System. It must submit a report on that issue by Jan. 1. Walker will appoint two of the task force members. He said he will work with the state Legislature to develop reforms for the campuses by the next two-year budget.
Gov. Scott Walker signed a two-year $66 billion budget Sunday that will cut nearly $800 million from public schools, expand taxpayer support for private voucher schools, cut taxes for investors and businesses, clamp down on property taxes and put the state?s finances in better shape than they?ve been in for more than a decade.
Republican Gov. Scott Walker left the state budget largely intact, using his powerful veto pen to issue only 50 changes before signing it into law Sunday. The lack of changes indicate Republicans who control the Legislature handed the governor most of what he wanted as they revised the two-year, $66 billion budget.
It means the 51-unit Pres House Apartments will remain tax exempt, sparing it an annual cost of about $200,000.
“We?re thrilled,” said the Rev. Mark Elsdon, executive director of the Pres House ministry. “We take it as an affirmation of the work we?re doing and the value of it.”
Noted: Walker also used his veto pen to eliminate Board of Regents review and approval of University of Wisconsin-Madison compensation, personnel system plans and tentative labor agreements because “these plans will already require approval from the Joint Committee on Employment Relations?? and “removing this level of approval will give the state?s flagship campus the level of autonomy it needs to successfully compete in the global higher education environment.”
ASHWAUBENON, Wis. — Having survived months of protests, injunctions, and appeals, Wisconsin?s budget is now officially law.
ASHWAUBENON (WKOW) — Gov. Scott Walker signed his first budget on Sunday afternoon at a private ceremony near Green Bay.
In signing the two-year $66 billion budget, Governor Scott Walker eliminates the debt saying ?Republicans and Democrats alike have caused this problem.? He says ?Unfortunately for all of us ?honest budgeting? was one of those areas where both political parties tended to look the other way.?
Progressives have found precious little to like in the 2011-2013 budget Gov. Scott Walker will sign into law Sunday at a ceremony in Green Bay. But perhaps the most regressive item is a new tax loophole ? disguised as an economic development tool ? that is projected to cost the state hundreds of millions in lost revenue over the next decade.
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, UW-Madison professor of public affairs and applied economics
The tens of thousands of protesters have left. The metal detectors are gone. But a small reminder of the massive demonstrations that rocked the state Capitol for weeks on end remains. A mysterious heart-shaped red balloon still floats inside the Capitol dome, where it has hovered high over the rotunda since mid-February. Some say it has been hovering atop the dome since Feb. 14, the day hundreds of protesting UW-Madison students and teaching assistants held a Valentine?s Day march along State Street before flooding the Capitol with “valentines” for the governor and signs reading, “Please don?t break our hearts.”
A provision in the state budget would give more legal protection to researchers performing animal testing in the state.
Some animal rights activists say this will let researchers off the hook for animal cruelty, while researchers say it is necessary to close a loophole to ensure scientific studies continue. The amendment would exempt animal researchers in Wisconsin from any state criminal penalties for animal cruelty. Researchers would still be liable under federal law if they violate the protocol of their research institution.
A provision inserted in the state budget would prohibit UW Hospital and Clinics from funding abortions, but it?s unclear whether that will stop the hospital from offering required abortion experience to doctors-in-training. Abortions are not performed at UW Hospital and Clinics, but obstetrics and gynecology residents train at Planned Parenthood to learn about family planning, which includes the opportunity to perform abortions. State law currently prohibits the use of public funds to pay physicians to perform abortions with few exceptions, but the new legislation specifically targets UW Hospital and Clinics. UW Hospital and Clinics is a public authority and does not receive state funding.
About 100 illegal immigrants took advantage of a law allowing them to pay in-state tuition at University of Wisconsin System schools in the 2010-11 academic year, according to a State Journal analysis, under a short-lived program that will likely expire July 1. Republican Gov. Scott Walker is expected to sign a two-year budget that will ban resident tuition for illegal immigrants, ending a program that former Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, signed into law just two years ago. The State Journal obtained data from the 13 four-year campuses in the UW System and found that about 70 illegal immigrants filed paperwork for resident tuition in 2009-10, while about 100 did so in 2010-2011.
University of Wisconsin System administration must cut about 50 full time positions — or 40 percent of its staff — under the budget that Gov. Scott Walker is expected to sign this week. That means the size of administrative staff will be reduced from 126 to about 75.
The University of Wisconsin System is bracing for budget cuts that will require it to cut some positions.
The University of Wisconsin System has gotten some of what it wanted from the state budget. The Madison campus will not be spun off, although the issue will be studied. Michael Spector, President of the UW System Board of Regents, said the campuses will have some long sought flexibilities in areas including budgeting and personnel management. ?Not everything we wanted in those areas, but certainly a significant amount. I think, the way legislation works, it?s a good start for the next biennium,? he said.
The University of Wisconsin System has gotten some of what it wanted from the state budget. The Madison campus will not be spun off, although the issue will be studied. Michael Spector, President of the UW System Board of Regents, said the campuses will have some long sought flexibilities in areas including budgeting and personnel management. ?
As Chancellor Biddy Martin prepares to clean out her office in Bascom Hall by August, the coming national search for her successor should take into account some trends that are shaping higher education in other states.
The pay is good. The perks are, too. But who will want to be the next chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison? When Carolyn “Biddy” Martin abruptly announced last week that she was leaving the top post to become president of Amherst College, it was clear her relationship with the Board of Regents and UW System President Kevin Reilly had soured over a battle for campus autonomy, hatched behind her bosses? backs. With budget cuts looming and a raucous political atmosphere in Madison, the new person at Bascom Hall will have to be tenacious, politically astute and a peacemaker. Moreover, that person will have to show that leading a top-five public research institution has somehow not been tarnished by the turmoil.
And so, after six contentious months, the state of Wisconsin has a budget, a $66 billion spending plan balanced on the backs of the state?s children….We are already paying a price for this. UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin is gone. She may have been the university?s best hope for adapting to the future but she got caught up in Gov. Walker?s schemes and her position became untenable. I expect we?re going to see many of our best faculty members leave, too. It?s one thing to work here for less money than you can earn elsewhere; it?s another to work in an environment where the Legislature takes pride in cutting schools.
Wisconsin State Journal editorial page editor Scott Milfred appeared on Sunday morning?s “Upfront with Mike Gousha” on Milwaukee television station WISN-TV Ch. 12. He linked UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin?s departure to her frayed relationship with UW regents and UW System administrators following her push to split the Madison campus out of the System in Republican Gov. Scott Walker?s state budget.
Despite having one foot out the door, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin could have a hand in some key campus decisions before leaving next month for her new post as president of Amherst College.
Although no one is suggesting Martin would do anything to harm the university, several key campus players confided to The Capital Times that they?d nonetheless have a problem if she made any significant moves now that she has decided to leave town for a different job.
Don?t let legislators who voted for Gov. Scott Walker?s trash-and-burn budget try to tell you they believe that all women are full citizens with equal rights and equal protections under the law. They don?t.
Republican state senators, such as Alberta Darling and Sheila Harsdorf, voted for a budget that actually increases expenses for the supposedly cash-strapped state in order to fund discrimination against women.
Although no one is doing back flips because of an impending cut of $250 million in state taxpayer support over the next two years, University of Wisconsin System officials are generally pleased with the budget bill now awaiting Gov. Scott Walker?s signature. System leaders are most excited about the measures in the bill granting campuses across the state some long-sought freedoms from state oversight when it comes to construction, personnel systems, procurement and accountability reporting.
