If you smoke, if you send your children to public school or if you and your spouse together earn more than $300,000 a year, the $62.2 billion state budget to be taken up today by the Democratic-led Assembly will affect you.
Highlights for the University of Wisconsin System and UW-Madison:
â?¢ Allows faculty and staff to unionize.
â?¢ Provides health insurance benefits to domestic partners of university and other state employees at a projected cost of up to $6.7 million annually.
â?¢ Provides $113 million for tuition grants for System students, reducing grants by about $300 per student this fall from Gov. Doyleâ??s proposal.
â?¢ Borrows $978 million for construction projects, including a new nursing school building at UW-Madison.
â?¢ Provides $15 million to retain talented faculty.