Essentially, the UW System budget approved by the Finance Committee was left intact by the Senate with a few additions. These positive additions of note for UW-Madison include the following:

• The original Governor's budget provision that would authorize the offering of domestic partner benefits to all state employees.
• The original Building Commission Capital Budget recommendations that include the residence halls and union projects.
• $5 million in 2008-09 one-time GPR for the UW School of Medicine and Public Health comprehensive cancer center for lung cancer research. The GPR is contingent on $5 million in grants being sought for the cancer center.
• A provision that would increase the amount Universal Service Fund UW System receives to support telecommunications services at all 26 campuses.

An important element of the budget, funds for cost to continue, was also maintained in the Senate version. Cost to continue funds are dollars that are needed to continue to pay for expenses authorized in previous state budgets. These funds are essential to the basic operation of the university.

Also, the Senate retained the Governor's provision on recruitment and retention of high demand faculty. The provision calls for an investment of $10 million to help recruit and retain certain faculty members across the system.

The UW System Growth Agenda, primarily targeted at other UW System campuses, was also approved in part by the Senate. The Senate version deleted almost the entire program revenue portion on the UW-La Crosse Growth agenda initiative, while adding GPR to help cover tuition and financial aid for the second year of the biennium.

The two smaller items added to the budget in the Finance Committee were also maintained by the Senate. Those items are a provision for $25,000 that would set up a course that would introduce political, business and academic leaders in China to the Wisconsin Idea and $300,000 for research and outreach Discovery Farms, operated by several UW System institutions, including UW-Madison.

The miscellaneous items regarding providing students and parents detailed information on segregated fees, broken down by category and the provision require information to be provided to students about who will be teaching each class, tenured faculty, academic staff or teaching assistant were also maintained. A minor change relaxing the 10-year eligibility provision for spouses and dependents under the Wisconsin GI Bill was also approved.

The State Assembly is currently working on their own version of the budget, independent of the Senate's action. It is expected that many of the provisions the Senate added or left intact from the Finance version of the budget may not be maintained. Efforts continue to work with Assembly leaders to ensure provisions important to UW-Madison are included in their final version. The Assembly is currently deliberating their version and has scheduled Tuesday, July 10th as the day they will vote on the spending plan.

Once the Assembly completes their action, the budget bill will be referred to the conference committee.

A statement by Chancellor Wiley on Tuesday's action is available at: http://www.news.wisc.edu/13896. Also, a statement from UW System President Kevin Reilly and Regent President Mark Bradley is available at: http://www.wisconsin.edu/news/2007/r070627.htm.

For the complete text of all bills and their current status, please visit http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2005/data/ab_list.html (Assembly bills) or http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2005/data/sb_list.html (Senate bills).

For more information on state related issues contact,
Don Nelson or Kristi Thorson
Assistant Directors, State Relations
608/262-8967