July 5, 2005
SENATE CHANGES, PASSES BUDGET
After working through the night last Thursday to come up with the votes needed to pass the budget, Friday morning the State Senate voted 17-16 to pass the 2005-07 biennial budget bill (Assembly Bill 100) after making several changes to the version passed by the Assembly a week earlier. Of interest to UW-Madison, the Senate made the following changes:
- Targeted a $1 million cut to UW-Madison administration.
- Reduced the UW System appropriation by another $34 million over the biennium. UW-Madison’s share of this cut would be approximately $13 million. However, the UW System would be allowed to request restoration of up to $17 million a year at a meeting of the Joint Finance Committee.
- Require state workers who do not belong to unions to contribute 1.5 percent of their salaries to their retirement benefits.
- Included a provision to limit future state spending to the growth of inflation and population and a 1 percent increase.
The Senate did not approve an amendment to cap tuition. The proposed cap (Senate Amendment 5) would have limited tuition increases to 3 percent a year, but would not have replaced the lost revenue with state tax dollars, resulting in an effective $49.5 million cut to the UW System (assuming the current projections of 7 percent tuition increases based on the budget passed by the Assembly and Joint Finance Committee. That amendment failed 25-8. Senators who spoke out against the cap included Senators Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton), Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls), Bob Jauch (D- Poplar), Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point), Mark Miller (D-Monona), Judy Robson (D-Beloit), and Fred Risser (D-Madison). The Senate, on a party line vote, also did not approve an amendment offered by Senate Democrats to restore cuts to the UW-System (Senate Amendment 8).
Because the Senate made changes to the budget passed by the Assembly, the Assembly must vote to either accept the changes or reject some or all of them. If the Assembly does not accept all the changes, the bill goes back to the Senate for reconsideration. If the two houses do not vote to accept the same budget bill, a formal or informal conference committee will have to work out the differences. Once a final package is agreed to, the bill goes to the Governor for his signature and vetoes.
For more information on the 2005-07 biennial budget, please visit the state relations web page at www.staterelations.wisc.edu/0507budget.html.
CLONING BILL WON’T BE TAKEN UP BEFORE FALL
The State Senate did not take up Assembly Bill 499, the bill to ban reproductive and therapeutic cloning, before their spring floor session ended last Thursday. The full legislature won’t be in session (with the exception of action on the state budget) until September 20. However, legislative Committees can act on bills in preparation for the fall session.
Additional information on this bill and other stem cell related items can be found at: www.staterelations.wisc.edu/stemcells.html.
For more information on state related issues contact,
Kristi Thorson or Don Nelson
Assistant Directors, State Relations
608/262-8967