July 27, 2007
LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE BEGINS WORK ON STATE BUDGET
This week, a legislative conference committee convened to begin the deliberations on the state budget. The budget has been approved by the Senate and Assembly and the differences between the versions are being negotiated by the conference committee. The committee's work will continue until both houses agree on an identical version. Much of the negotiations will take place behind closed doors and the agreements generally discussed at the committee meetings. The members of the conference committee are:
Assembly
Rep. Michael Huebsch (R-West Salem), Assembly Speaker
Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Beaver Bam), Assembly Majority Leader
Rep. Kitty Rhoades (R-Hudson), Co-Chair Joint Committee on Finance
Rep. Jim Kreuser (D-Kenosha), Assembly Minority Leader
Senate
Sen. Judy Robson (D-Beloit), Senate Majority Leader
Sen. Russ Decker (D-Schofield), Co-Chair Joint Committee on Finance
Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Superior), Member, Joint Committee in Finance
Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), Senate Minority Leader
Advocacy on the budget continues by representatives from UW System and Chancellor John Wiley. This week, Chancellor Wiley met with the editorial boards of the Capital Times and Wisconsin State Journal and delivered a letter to all legislators and the Governor describing the potential effect of the Assembly version of the budget if enacted. A copy of the letter is available at: http://www.staterelations.wisc.edu/images/LegislatorsReBudget7-25-07.pdf
UW System has also produced information detailing the effect of the Assembly budget system wide. This material was given to all legislators this week and is available at: http://www.wisconsin.edu/growthagenda/docs/2007-07-18_assemblyOnePager.pdf.
Conversations with legislators continue and it is hoped that action on the university portions of the budget will be discussed soon.
ATTORNEY GENERAL BACKS UW FRESHMAN ADMISSIONS POLICY
This week, Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issued an informal legal opinion that concluded the UW System freshman admissions policy adopted by the Board of Regents in February does not use racial tests for admission. In March, legislators on both sides of the admissions issue asked Van Hollen for an opinion on the new policy. The Attorney General stated in the ruling that policy can use race as one of many factors that are considered when weighing a freshman admission. Van Hollen did state that the UW must ensure that individual assessment of each applicant continues. A copy of the ruling is available at:
http://www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/July07/july27/0727dojletter.pdf
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