Skip to main content
Link to news home page
News

Senate approves budget

June 20, 2001

The state Senate has approved a 2001-03 budget that includes a $16.2 million boost for the Madison Initiative and full funding for the BioStar program.

The Senate backs a $58 million package for the UW System that includes a $16.2 million boost for the Madison Initiative.

“This additional funding will allow us to create and expand programs that prepare our students for the 21st century workplace as well as programs that will help expand Wisconsin’s competitiveness in the global economy,” says Chancellor John Wiley.

“Wisconsin’s economy is at a critical juncture,” adds Jay L. Smith, President of the UW Board of Regents. “The Senate budget action allows us to keep our flagship campuses – UW–Madison and UW-Milwaukee – competitive and to make key investments throughout the UW System that will pay great dividends in the state’s regional economies.”

“We also appreciate the Senate’s action to increase financial aid and help keep a university education affordable to our students,” says UW System President Katharine C. Lyall.

The budget next moves to the Assembly where legislators will make further modifications before it goes to a conference committee and then on to the governor to be signed into law.

The Senate package, approved June 20, would increase student learning opportunities, enhance state economic development, and continue strategic hiring of faculty. It also would help offset expected tuition increases by pumping more money into financial aid programs, university officials say.

“The Madison Initiative partnership benefits not only our students, but also the economy of the state and its citizens,” Chancellor John Wiley says. “This additional state funding for the Madison Initiative would ensure that we receive the $20 million in private funding that has been promised by the UW Foundation and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.”

The latest changes adopted by the Senate Democratic Caucus also would restore full funding for the BioStar program. The Joint Finance Committee had provided funding for the first two buildings on the Madison campus, but removed funding that had been recommended by the State Building Commission for two additional buildings.

The package, which still must be approved by the full Legislature and the governor, would also:

  • Provide a seven percent increase in the state’s financial aid programs — Wisconsin Higher Education Grant (WHEG), Lawton and Advanced Opportunity Program — and tie future increases in these programs to increases in tuition.
  • Provide the Board of Regents with the authority to create positions funded with program revenue without getting the approval of the Legislature.
  • Create a two-year pilot program at UW–Madison to address the use of long-term LTE positions by converting 100 LTE positions into full-time classified positions. UW–Madison would be required to report to the Legislature in two years on how this program has reduced the use of LTE positions.
  • Abolish the pharmacy internship board Dec. 31. The board’s funding would be directed to the Wisconsin Patient Safety Institute.
  • Create a nursing loan forgiveness program.
  • Delete $500,000 in funding for the UW System to develop wireless networking systems on UW campuses.
  • Delete $250,000 in funding for the UW System to create a not-for-profit Learning Innovations organization.

    Some of the latest changes adopted by the Senate Democratic Caucus would:

  • Restore $79.1 million in bonding authority in the 2001-2003 biennium for maintenance projects at state facilities.
  • Restore $40 million in bonding authority for facilities maintenance and repair projects for the UW System in the 2003-2005 biennium.
  • Provide $250,000 to the UW Center for Dairy Profitability to develop and expand its Internet program for beginning dairy farmers. The Senate also called for the creation of a loan forgiveness program for students who farm for 5 consecutive years after graduation.
  • Delete the governor’s recommendation regarding the restructuring of the public broadcasting system in Wisconsin.
  • Delete the governor’s recommendation to create a Department of Electronic Government.
  • Require the creation of a Legislative Council Study Committee to examine how the state’s research universities, the business community and state government can foster economic development within the state to assist and develop scientific and technology-based industry.
  • Modify the property tax exemption for the UW Medical Foundation that was approved by the Joint Finance Committee to require that the use of the property must be primarily related to the purposes of the Foundation.
  • Create statutory language to prohibit a member of the Board of Directors of the UW Hospital and Clinics Authority from having an ownership interest in, being employed by or affiliated with any business providing goods or services to the authority.