August 10, 2007
LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE CONTINUES BUDGET WORK WITH LITTLE PROGRESS
This week, the legislative conference committee convened and discussed UW System related items. There was not consensus among the items offered by either side, with the exception of an agreement in principle about tuition. The Senate Democrats they support the Assembly Republican four percent tuition cap. However, the agreement is contingent on other funding issues that would replace the revenue lost under a tuition cap scenario. Even though there is a framework for agreement on the tuition cap issue, nothing is official and the deliberations will continue for several weeks at least.
A Summary of the Senate Democrat's proposal is available at: http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=102186.
However, there were some areas of agreement from the committee on some UW related items. The items agreed to were items that the Assembly, Senate, and Joint Committee on Finance included in their final budget documents. These items include:
- A requirement regarding providing students and parents detailed information on segregated fees, broken down by category.
- A requirement that information to be provided to students about who will be teaching each class: tenured faculty, academic staff, or teaching assistant.
A complete list of the items agreed upon by the Conference Committee is available at (Beginning on page 317): http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lfb/LFBPublications_ButtonPages/Publications_Main.htm.
The Conference Committee is scheduled to meet next on Thursday, August 16th. Discussion on UW System issues is not expected, however advocacy continues with legislators.
SENATE COMMITTEE TO HOLD HEARING AT UW RESEARCH PARK
On Wednesday, August 22nd the Senate Committee on Economic Development and Job Creation is scheduled to hold a legislative hearing at 1:15 p.m. in the MG&E Innovation Center located at 510 Charmany Drive in the research park. The committee, chaired by Sen. Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point), will hear from the several individuals from biotechnology to venture capital. The list of speakers include:
- Mark Bugher, Director of the University Research Park, on overview of URP, Tech Transfer, WARF and economic development issues.
- Laura Strong, President of Quintessence Biosciences, on the challenges of a start up biotech company.
- John Neis, Managing Partner, Venture Investors on Venture Capital issues.
- Tom Still, President of Wisconsin Technology Council on technology issues and challenges in Wisconsin.
- Allen Dines, Associate Director of the Office of Corporate Relations on the role of OCR in tech transfer at UW.
The hearing is open to the public.
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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