State Budget Falls Short for Construction

Construction of a new Pharmacy building on campus and the addition of needed utilities at UW–Madison could be delayed under Gov. Tommy Thompson’s capital budget for 1997-99.

Preliminary capital budget figures, made public last week at the UW System Board of Regents meeting in Madison, indicate that at least $5 million in additional gifts and donations would have to be raised to finance the $45 million Pharmacy facility.

As part of its agreement with the state, UW–Madison is seeking the final $15 million in state funding to match $15 million raised by private donors and $15 million in state funds already committed to construct the Pharmacy building.

Chancellor David Ward says an additional $5 million in private monies would be extremely difficult to raise.

“These donors have given very generously, and we are grateful for their efforts, but I don’t think they can raise any additional funds,” Ward says.

The university is also seeking $12 million for a new boiler and a new chiller, which is used to cool buildings on campus.

The preliminary capital budget figures show that only $30 million of the Regents’ $121.6 million capital budget request for the next two years would be funded. UW–Madison and UW System officials say the preliminary capital budget would hinder building and renovation projects needed on university campuses statewide.

“It is of great concern to us as the Madison campus and to the UW System as a whole that the state is apparently unwilling to maintain the current capital budget of the campuses,” says John Torphy, vice chancellor for administration.

Torphy and David Olien, UW System vice president for university relations, stress that the capital budget has not been considered by the State Building Commission, much less the Legislature. Nevertheless, “it would be a very serious situation if this would be the capital budget,” says Olien.

“This capital budget would chain faculty and students to mid-20th century facilities as they enter the 21st century. That’s not appropriate,” he says.

In response to the preliminary figures, the Board of Regents last week approved a resolution calling for the creation of UW System Revenue Bonds to fund facilities needs. The bonds, which would be secured by university gifts, grants and tuition revenue, are used by most other states for university facilities, the Regents said.

At a minimum, the Regents said, the proceeds from paying off about $110 million in outstanding bonds for UW System facilities over the next two years should be reinvested to meet pressing future needs.

Department of Administration officials could not be reached for comment.

The higher education subcommittee of the State Budget Commission will hold a hearing on the UW System’s capital budget request at 8:30 a.m. on April 21 at 780 Regent St. The full Building Commission will meet April 23 to take action on all state agency capital budget requests.

The commission’s recommendations will then be sent to the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee for consideration as part of the 1997-99 biennial budget.

In other construction news, the Board of Regents approved spending:

• an additional $4.3 million in gift funds for the Kohl Center;
• $3.8 million for the parking ramp near Steenbock Library; and
• an extra $750,000 in gift funds for the Red Gym addition and renovation project.