June 21, 2002
BUDGET CLOSER TO RESOLUTION
This week the legislative conference committee formally agreed to more than 260 items in the budget adjustment bill, many of which had been tentatively agreed to in prior proposals from both Republicans and Democrats. Of interest to the University, the committee:
- Agreed to delete the Assembly provision requiring non-resident students to pay a 10 tuition surcharge
- Agreed to delete the Assembly provision reducing the UW System travel expenditures budget by $8.5 million
- Agreed to the Assembly provision requiring undergraduate students to pay the full cost of any course work beyond 165 credits and reducing the UW System budget by $6.7 million
- Agreed to maintain study abroad scholarships funding
- Agreed to eliminate the Assembly provision that would require students to pay a surcharge for courses that are retaken
- Agreed to delete the Senate's early retirement proposal
- Agreed to delete the Senate provision requiring hospitals to obtain a certificate of need before making any capital improvements or new construction
- Agreed to delete the Assembly provision cutting the printing budgets for state agencies
The conference committee has less than 50 items to resolve, but those include the majority of the large fiscal items such as UW across the board budget cuts and shared revenue. Of interest to UW-Madison, the committee has yet to act on accelerating BioStar Initiative bonding as proposed by the Senate, the level of compensation reserve funding for state employee pay increases, the Assembly proposal to reduce the UW System advertising budget by $4 million, linking WHEG and Lawton financial aid funding increases to tuition increases, and the Assembly proposal to require state employees to contribute toward their health insurance costs.
According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau the two houses are between $16 million and $18 million short of balancing the $1.117 billion deficit, depending on which packages of proposals are considered. The committee is expected to meet again Monday afternoon.
A full list of items of interest to UW-Madison and conference committee action is available at http://www.staterelations.wisc.edu/02budgetconf.html.
JENSEN STEPS DOWN FROM CONFERENCE COMMITTEECiting the need to focus attention on the budget issues and not personalities, Speaker Scott Jensen (R, Waukesha) stepped down from the conference committee last week. Joint finance committee co-chair Representative John Gard (R, Peshtigo) is now co-chair of the conference committee and the third Assembly Republican seat will be filled by members with expertise on that day's issues.
POLL SHOWS ELECTIONS NOT ON PUBLIC'S MIND YET
Moving into the summer preceding the gubernatorial election, the public's views of the incumbent Wisconsin governor remain lukewarm, according to the most recent Badger Poll conducted by the UW-Madison Survey Center. Overall, 3 percent of those surveyed rated him excellent, 32 percent good, 35 percent fair and 19 percent poor. In the same survey 30 percent of those polled feel Governor McCallum deserves re-election, while 43 percent would "rather see someone else as governor." But the poll also showed that people are not really focused on the election campaign as yet, with fewer than half of those surveyed saying they are now paying either "a lot" or "some" attention to the people running for governor. The full news release on the Badger Poll's findings can be viewed on line at http://www.news.wisc.edu/view.html?get=7615.
BUILDING COMMISSION APPROVES UW PROJECTS
On Wednesday the State Building Commission approved a number of UW-Madison projects, including:
- Approval of the design report and authority to construct the Weeks Hall Addition
- Authority to design and construct a Chronic Wasting Disease Testing Lab at the WI Veterinary Diagnostic Lab
- Accepting the recommendation of the Department of Administration to require a 50 match of gift funds ($10 million) for the new Meat and Muscle Science Laboratory that was included in the 2001-03 budget.
ED THOMPSON ANNOUNCES RUNNING MATE
Gubernatorial candidate Ed Thompson announced that democratic state representative Marty Reynolds (Ladysmith) would be his running mate on the Libertarian ticket for Lt. Governor in this fall's election. Reynolds recently announced that he would not seek re-election to the Assembly citing his disgust at political games-playing in the Capitol.GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
Gov. Scott McCallum this week outlined his "Build Wisconsin" economic development strategic plan, saying it "creates a strategic direction for the state's economy and provides action steps to address both short- and long-term issues affecting Wisconsin's economic vitality." Among other initiatives the plan calls for providing student loan forgiveness tied to residency and developing a recruitment campaign for college seniors to advise them of Wisconsin careers as a way to stop the "brain drain" of college students. For more information on the "Build Wisconsin" initiative go to http://comgis1.commerce.state.wi.us/buildwisconsin/.NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS? LET US KNOW
Many "old" campus e-mail addresses/domains are being phased out by June 30, including ccmail and macc.wisc.edu. If we have an old e-mail address for you and you would like to continue receiving the state relations update, please e-mail staterelations@bascom.wisc.edu with your new address as well as the one currently on our listserv so we can make the necessary changes. For a list of e-mail domains that will be phased out click on http://www.doit.wisc.edu/news/newsitem.asp?filename=1537.For more information on state related issues contact:
Charles Hoslet
Senior Special Assistant to the Chancellor
Director, State Relations
hoslet@mail.bascom.wisc.edu
608-263-5510