Category: State budget

In this time of intense political discussion in our state, one issue of significant concern is the proposal to separate the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the 25 other campuses in the UW System. As someone who cares deeply about education in our community and our state, I cannot support a plan that I believe positions our flagship university to compete with UW-Green Bay and other UW campuses for scarce resources.

Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker and GOP leaders have launched a push to ram several years? worth of conservative agenda items through the Legislature this spring before recall elections threaten to end the party?s control of state government. Republicans, in a rapid sequence of votes over the next eight weeks, plan to legalize concealed weapons, deregulate the telephone industry, require voters to show photo identification at the polls, expand school vouchers and undo an early release for prisoners. At the same time lawmakers are pushing through conservative policies, they will be wrestling with Walker?s budget proposal. Walker wants to cut roughly $1 billion from schools and local governments, split the Madison campus from the University of Wisconsin System and slow the growth of Medicaid by $500 million.

I am a proud graduate of UW-Madison. I am also a proud graduate of UW-Oshkosh.These sentiments should not conflict. Yet I feel a wedge has been driven between them by the debate over UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin and Gov. Scott Walker?s New Badger Partnership plan to make UW-Madison a public authority.

BROOKFIELD — Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch says he and Gov. Scott Walker remain hopeful that the guv?s proposed split of UW-Madison from the rest of the university system will pass.

Some state workers are not buying Gov. Scott Walker?s recent efforts to honor state workers and, in response, held a noon event outside the Capitol Thursday they?re calling “State Employee Depreciation Day.” A news release notes the event is being sponsored by the “Ad Hoc Committee for State Employee Depreciation.”

While state Republicans hope to resolve the controversy over the budget repair bill in the courts, they are prepared to insert parts of the bill into the state?s budget if no ruling comes by the end of the fiscal year, June 30.

There may be nothing more entertaining in state politics this week than the contrast between the obliviously upbeat YouTube video Gov. Scott Walker made to solicit nominations for his new state employee recognition program and the decidedly downbeat comments posted in response.

I was hesitant to write this article. It?s on a complex, dense issue ? which means I?m going to be berated for whatever I say. But over the past year and a half I?ve been writing for The Badger Herald, it?s been the insightful comments (many of which have disagreed with me) that have meant the most. I?m writing about the New Badger Partnership this week, and I?ll start off by saying that I?m incredibly ambivalent about the proposal, which makes it both a wonderful topic to write about and an incredibly intimidating one.

ROCK COUNTY, Wis. — University of Wisconsin officials spoke about keeping the UW System together in Rock County on Wednesday.

As unions that represent public-college professors have come under attack in state legislatures, the unions? leaders have fought back without being able to define what, exactly, they stand to lose if their right to collectively bargain goes away.

MADISON — A UW-Oshkosh professor received a letter of reprimand for urging students to consider signing a recall petition against Senator Randy Hopper during a class session. In a statement, Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) called for public affairs professor Stephen Richards? resignation.

Changes to the UW System. As we wrote last week in this space, we oppose splitting the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the rest of the UW System. While we agree that changes are necessary to allow universities to be more flexible and more efficient, they should be applied to the entirety of the system — not just to Madison. This is better achieved through standalone legislation than through a provision in the budget bill.

At least one Wisconsin farm organization says it?s backing the New Badger Partnership, which would make the University of Wisconsin-Madison autonomous from the rest of the UW-System.

The Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Cranberry Growers Association is behind the New Badger Partnership, which would make UW-Madison autonomous from the rest of the UW-System.

Mike Mikalsen and I don?t agree on much. Mikalsen, the research assistant and lead strategist for state Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, has played a central role in Nass? work as the main thorn in the side of UW-Madison. So as I spoke with Mikalsen over the phone last week concerning the proposed New Badger Partnership, it was no surprise that I disagreed with much of what he said.

With the controversial budget repair bill currently stuck in the court system, Republicans have been discussing ways to ensure Wisconsin municipalities still receive the tools Gov. Scott Walker said were contained in the bill which limited collective bargaining authority for public employees, including adding that provision to the biennial budget bill.

The head of the University of Wisconsin System says that splitting off the Madison campus from the rest of the statewide public college system would be costly and would damage the reputations of all campuses.

Many public university systems? flagship campuses, faced with state funding cuts, are hiking tuition, increasing the numbers of higher-paying nonresident students, ramping up fundraising — and confronting the very notion of what it means to be a public institution.

Government employees are some of the last workers still covered by traditional pension plans, which guarantee retirees a payment until they die. But facing tight budgets and a new economic reality, many states — including Wisconsin — have looked at shifting workers into personal savings accounts like a 401(k).

What is being proposed as a “public authority” for the campus has no semblance to the public authority at UW Hospital…It has been 15 years since UW Hospital became an excellent model of a public authority, aggressively striving and meeting the goals of quality, competitive health care and labor peace. Let?s use the model.

Noted: Vos has also said it was “highly unlikely” the committee will go along with Walker?s plan to break the UW-Madison campus off from the UW System.