Quoted: Tim Smeeding, an economist and director of the UW-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty. Also noted is the Applied Population Laboratory at UW-Madison.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin is urging the Legislature?s budget committee to delay action on Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal doing away with collective bargaining rights for public employees.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin has known for more than a month that Wisconsin?s flagship university might be splitting from the UW System ? and gaining some key flexibilities and freedoms thanks to the Walker administration ? according to a memo obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Wisconsin is poised to strip collective bargaining rights from most of the state?s 175,000 public employees in the boldest step by a new Republican governor and Legislature to solve budget problems by confronting organized labor.
The UW System is calling for Gov. Scott Walker to incorporate in his soon-to-be-introduced state budget an overhaul of the system?s ties to state government. The overhaul would allow the system greater control over setting tuition ? likely leading to ?significant increases,? says one expert ? as well as budgeting, purchasing and management of capital projects.
Leaders of the University of Wisconsin and UW System responded to the governor?s rumored budget plan which would separate the Madison campus from the other schools in the UW System.
Dear Members of the Board of Regents:
I write to explain why I have ventured as far as I have in promoting the ?New Badger Partnership? and why I have taken the steps I have taken. Let me begin by expressing my deep respect for the Regents, for your role in coordinating the campuses of the system, and for your efforts to do what you think best for all of our institutions.
A bill eliminating most collective bargaining rights from nearly all Wisconsin public employees passed the Legislature?s budget-writing committee just before midnight Wednesday.
A memo from University of Wisconsin Chancellor Biddy Martin to a state official alludes Martin had prior knowledge of Gov. Scott Walker?s intent to provide UW with more flexibility.
The stage is set for a final showdown on Governor Scott Walker?s budget repair bill, after the Legislature?s Joint Finance Committee approved an amended version of the proposal late Wednesday night.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin has called on state lawmakers to negotiate with university workers before voting on a proposed budget repair bill that would cut wages and many collective bargaining rights for state workers
University of Wisconsin System leaders are concerned Gov. Scott Walker might try to remove UW-Madison from the UW System when he releases his 2011-13 biennial budget next week.
Gov. Scott Walker?s budget may contain a provision to split UW-Madison from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System.
With a key committee vote out of the way, Republican leaders plan to soon pass a bill that would effectively strip collective bargaining rights from most public workers in Wisconsin, suggesting only modest changes to the proposal introduced by Gov. Scott Walker.
Despite professing a lack of details about UW-Madison?s relationship with the state at three student forums, a drafted letter obtained by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed Wednesday that Chancellor Biddy Martin advocated for the university?s separation from the UW system, and knew it was likely.
I wrote this in a fit of passion and the language is strong. I?ve had time to rationally think everything through and I think my feelings are more aligned with Erik Paulson?s. Read his comment down below (it?s long) for that. I was just trying to express my professional disappointment in the entire process; I feel that I have been slighted by administrators whom I trusted. So if some of this reads as a little bitter, it probably is.
University of Wisconsin leaders fear that Gov. Scott Walker will spin off the flagship UW-Madison campus from the rest of the UW System.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin sent a letter to the UW System Board of Regents Wednesday night that praises their efforts to get freedom from state rules on purchasing, pay and other areas for all UW campuses, but asks for their support of a proposal to get those benefits for UW-Madison whether other schools get them or not.
For many foreigner observers ? and, perhaps, many Americans too ? the only reason recent goings-on in Wisconsin might cross their minds was the Green Bay Packers? victory in the Super Bowl. That was a great moment for the team?s famous “cheesehead” fans and anyone who admires those who wear fake cheese triangles as hats.
Education leaders in Wisconsin said Wednesday that the forthcoming two-year state budget Gov. Scott Walker will propose next week will lead to cuts that could spell the end of Milwaukee Public Schools as we know it and changes University of Wisconsin leaders say could split the flagship Madison campus off the university system.
At 10 a.m. today, drop everything.Stand up and walk out of that classroom door to meet your fellow students at Library Mall at 10:30 a.m. Walk up State Street. Wave some signs. Yell at the top of your lungs. And protest the budget repair bill with everything you have got.
As four game wardens awkwardly stood guard, protesters, scores deep, crushed into a corridor leading to the governor?s office here on Wednesday, their screams echoing through the Capitol: ?Come out, come out, wherever you are!?
Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, which includes controversial provisions to strip some collective bargaining rights from state employees, passed the Joint Finance Committee on a partisan 12-4 vote.
Republicans on the committee amended the bill to remove a provision stripping pension and health benefits from limited term employees.
As thousands of protestors flooded campus on their way to the Capitol, some UW-Madison student groups tried to make sense of the proposed Budget Repair Bill for students.
Amid protests in and around the Capitol Tuesday, hundreds of citizens testified their concerns with the budget repair bill to the state?s main financial committee, lasting the majority of the day and into the early hours of this morning.
In a continued expression of solidarity and support for state workers? rights, nearly 13,000 protesters crowded Capitol Square and spilled onto State Street in the second day of rallying in opposition to the proposed budget repair bill.
University of Wisconsin System leaders sent a letter to Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday expressing concern that parts of his proposed 2011-13 biennial budget might remove UW-Madison from the UW System.
The letter is signed by UW System President Kevin Reilly, UW Board of Regents President Charles Pruitt and board VP Michael Spector. It notes “we want to express strong concerns about this significant restructuring, especially without broad consultation and careful deliberation.”
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin is calling on the Joint Committee on Finance to delay its vote on Gov. Scott Walker?s budget repair bill, asking for more opportunity for negotiation. Referencing Abraham Lincoln, she asked that lawmakers take time to review the proposed changes.
MADISON, Wis. — There are indications that support among Republican legislators for Gov. Scott Walker?s plan to remove collective bargaining rights for public workers might be starting to crack. State Sen. Dan Kapanke of La Crosse told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he didn?t know where Republicans stood on the proposal that drew more than 13,000 protesters to the state Capitol on Tuesday.
In one of the largest protests in recent memory, thousands of angry union supporters gathered at the state Capitol on Tuesday to oppose a bill by Gov. Scott Walker that would greatly weaken organized labor in Wisconsin. More than 12,000 protesters gathered in two separate rallies outside the Capitol, many of them carrying signs and chanting “Recall Walker” or “Kill this bill.” Thousands more crowded inside the rotunda and watched TV monitors broadcasting a public hearing on the governor’s proposal.
Quoted: David Ahrens, a researcher at UW-Madison?s Carbone Cancer Center and Charles Franklin, UW-Madison political science professor,
A blog posted Tuesday on WordPress.com urges University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema to take a stand against Gov. Scott Walker?s “Budget Repair Bill,” which would limit the collective bargaining rights of public sector unions. The blog is written in the form of an open letter to Bielema and notes he received the approval for his “well-deserved” raise to an annual compensation of $2.5 million on Friday, the same day Walker unveiled his bill.
Wisconsin needs to be fiscally responsible. There is no question that these are tough times, and they may require tough choices. But Gov. Scott Walker is not making tough choices. He is making political choices, and they are designed not to balance budgets but to improve his political position and that of his party.
Hundreds of Wisconsin?s public employees clogged a hearing for hours and camped out in the state Capitol overnight in a desperate attempt to delay action on Republican Gov. Scott Walker?s plan to strip away most of their collective bargaining rights. The Legislature?s finance committee is preparing to vote on the measure, which would end collective bargaining for all state, county and local workers except for police, firefighters and the state patrol. “So many people are against this,” UW-Madison senior Kylie Christianson said early Wednesday as she sat in the Capitol rotunda on her blanket, putting the finishing touches on a protest sign. “His job is to help us, not to hurt us.”
Top GOP lawmakers said Tuesday that Gov. Scott Walker?s budget repair plan will pass the Legislature even as thousands of workers converged on the Capitol to protest the proposal?s cuts in employee benefits and union bargaining rights.
Andrew Welhouse, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), said Republicans had the support needed to get the bill through the Senate, where it faces its biggest hurdle. The bill makes cuts to public workers? pension and health benefits and eliminates almost all union bargaining rights.
Thousands of state union workers and their supporters blanketed the Capitol on Tuesday for a daylong demonstration to protest Gov. Scott Walker?s plans to wipe away most of their bargaining rights and reduce fringe benefits.
Hundreds of Wisconsin?s public employees clogged a hearing for hours and camped out in the state Capitol overnight in a desperate attempt to delay action on Republican Gov. Scott Walker?s plan to strip away most of their collective bargaining rights. The measure would end collective bargaining for all state, county and local workers except for police, firefighters and the state patrol. Two floors below the hearing, dozens of University of Wisconsin-Madison teaching assistants and students surged into the Capitol rotunda late Tuesday evening, putting down sleeping bags and blankets. Many were still asleep on the floor when the hearing ended.
Catching up on a couple items related to Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed budget repair bill …
** After remaining mostly silent, at least publicly, on the governor?s proposal, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin on Monday e-mailed a letter to the campus community which outlines her thoughts on the issue.
** UW-Madison chemistry professor Judith Burstyn is hoping to testify at Tuesday?s public hearing on the budget repair bill.
** UW-Madison professor Greg Downey published an interesting blog post in which notes his “own reactions to these budget proposals.”
What?s happening now in Wisconsin, with thousands of workers flooding the Capitol to protest Gov. Scott Walker?s move to snuff the collective bargaining power of public employees, is much more than backlash against a union-busting maneuver, labor activists and their supporters said Tuesday evening at a forum at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Madison. It is, they insist, the first counter-strike in a class war being waged against workers.
File this one under either the A) it could be worse category or B) coming soon from a legislator near you.
Protests have engulfed the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where students are standing against a proposed bill that threatens teacher?s unions. The outcries come as the state?s new Republican Governor Scott Walker announced a plan to end collective bargaining for most of the state?s 175,000 public employees.
One of Scott Walker?s pledges in his campaign for governor was to “strip policy and pork projects from the state budget.”
SOMERS – University of Wisconsin-Parkside employees objected to the governor?s budget repair bill Tuesday, calling it “short-sighted” and “draconian” and claiming it will ultimately make the state ill-equipped for future challenges.
UW professor emeritus Dennis Dresang from the La Follette School of Public Affairs talks about Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to strip most state and local workers of collective bargaining rights. (Video.)
Thousands of people came to the Capital City with the hope Governor Walker would hear their message — of opposition. “I think we?ve lost the sense of democracy,” Terry Ferriss says, “I feel like what people in Egypt are fighting for right now. That?s exactly what I feel like I?m fighting for right now is basic democracy and our basic rights.”
There was no shortage of passion or emotion inside the Capitol Tuesday, with nearly every Capitol observer describing the scene as crazy or unbelievable.
Thousands of protesters gathered on the steps of the Wisconsin State Capitol here on Tuesday to voice their opposition to a fast-moving proposal that would strip the union bargaining rights for University of Wisconsin faculty and staff members, while almost eliminating bargaining rights for nearly all other state workers, including graduate students.
MADISON, Wis. — Republican co-chairs of a legislative committee are considering cutting off public testimony on a proposal to erase most collective bargaining rights for nearly all public workers.
Noted: The Republicans have also named Representative Stephen Nass chair of the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee. The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater alumni has made it a priority to cut funds from the UW system and defund the Havens Center at UW-Madison because, as he says, it is “too far to the left.”
Hundreds of Wisconsin?s public employees clogged a hearing for hours and camped out in the state Capitol overnight in a desperate attempt to delay action on Republican Gov. Scott Walker?s plan to strip away most of their collective bargaining rights.
Union workers who oppose Governor Scott Walker?s repair bill, some shouting ?When I say Walker you say stupid,? convene at the state capitol by the thousands. In fact, according to Department of Administration estimates, 3,000 inside the building and 10,000 outside.
Testimony before the Joint Finance Committee on Governor Scott Walker?s budget repair bill stretched into the early hours of Wednesday morning, with many protestors camping out in the Capitol rotunda waiting for their turn to speak.
Despite having hundreds of people still wanting to speak on the Governor?s budget repair bill, the Legislature?s Finance Committee wrapped up its public hearing at three this morning.
Senate President Mike Ellis says the Republicans have the votes to pass Walker?s budget repair bill:
The Teaching Assistant Association (TAA) calls on Chancellor Biddy Martin to take a strong stance in opposition to Gov. Walker?s budget repair bill. Her response to the bill to this point has been anything but.
The UW should and must be a major job creator. It needs greater flexibility, autonomy AND accountability to do so. We support The New Badger Partnership, to Unleash the UW.
Although thousands of public employees are facing cuts of up to 8 percent of their family budgets if Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to curb bargaining rights and require pension contributions comes to pass, the state?s conservative “pro-family” group, Wisconsin Family Action, is fully in favor of the legislation.
The president of the Wisconsin state Senate said Tuesday there are enough votes among Republicans to pass Gov. Scott Walker?s explosive plan to end collective bargaining rights for nearly all public employees.
Governor Scott Walker on Friday proposed a “budget repair” bill that may fix the state budget but could do some real damage to the personal budgets of faculty members and others who work at the University of Wisconsin System. The plan proposes changes in benefit contribution requirements that would cost university employees in excess of 5 percent of salaries and could reach as high as 10 percent, according to some faculty advocates.
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau released a memo Monday saying Gov. Scott Walker?s budget adjustment legislation would save the state $107 million for the 2010-?11 fiscal year, not including money owed to Minnesota and the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund.
Gov. Scott Walker?s budget repair bill may be in jeopardy as rumors swirl around seven Republican state senators said to be on the fence about supporting the legislation.
