UW Seeks Piece of $230 Million State Windfall

What’s next? The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance — the 16-member budget and tax-writing panel comprised of representatives and senators from both parties — must approve the proposed 1997-99 state budget. Passage out of committee is expected by June 1. The $36.6 billion spending plan will then be sent to the Assembly and the Senate for final approval. Once the budget has been passed by both houses, it is sent to Gov. Tommy Thompson for his signature. Thompson, a Republican, can sign the budget or veto all or parts of it. His veto power is among the most powerful of any governor in the nation. Any part of the budget Thompson vetoes will be sent back to the Legislature for reconsideration. Items vetoed become law only if passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses. Political observers say the budget most likely will be approved by July 1, the start of the new two-year budget cycle.

UW officials are urging state lawmakers to look favorably on the UW System when deciding how to dole out $230 million in increased tax revenue.

The $230 million windfall, announced May 5 by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, comes from higher-than-expected state tax collections and has set off a scramble for the dollars among several competing interests.

With Gov. Tommy Thompson and Republican and Democratic legislators all devising their own plans for the surplus funds, it’s unclear how much of the new money the UW System — or UW–Madison — will receive in the next two-year state budget.

What is clear, though, is how much the UW System Board of Regents would like the state’s universities to receive.

The Board of Regents, at its meeting May 8-9 in Stevens Point, passed a resolution urging the Legislature to fully fund the “urgent priorities” outlined in its original budget request. To do so would cost roughly $55 million over the biennium.

The $55 million would cover 4 percent pay raises for faculty and academic staff in each of the next two years and fund a number of budget items cut by Thompson.

The resolution also urges the Legislature to approve a recommendation from Thompson to give the regents the ability to increase tuition revenue by 5 percent above what lawmakers approve and then spend the additional revenue. In budget terms this is known as “tuition revenue expenditure authority flexibility.”

“Additional [state] investments in these needs will help maintain educational quality and reduce anticipated tuition increases for the coming biennium,” the regents’ resolution says.

Tuition increases for next year have not yet been decided. In his biennial budget, the governor has proposed raising tuition by 2.7 percent in 1997-98 and 1.7 percent in 1998-99. Those figures do not reflect any salary impact on tuition.

The UW System is seeking approval for a number of other budget initiatives that would give campuses greater flexibility and control over funding and staffing decisions.

The $36.6 billion budget for 1997-99 will likely be approved by the Joint Committee on Finance later this month and sent to the Assembly and Senate for final action. From there the two-year spending plan will be forwarded to Thompson for his signature. The new two-year budget cycle begins July 1.

UW–Madison makes up about 53 percent of the proposed $5.2 billion UW System budget.

The regents’ request includes $28.2 million for pay raises; $14.7 million for educational technology, including $5.53 million for faculty retraining and $3.48 million for libraries; and $5 million to restore a cut to UW Extension’s budget.

The request also includes $2.67 million for academic advising; $2.47 million for financial aid for minority and disadvantaged students; $1.5 million for increasing the number of graduates from the Allied Health program at UW-La Crosse and UW-Milwaukee; and $300,000 for pre-college programs.

The $230 million windfall is primarily from increased income tax collections and includes an extra $95 million for the current fiscal year. The amounts drop to $75 million in 1997-98 and $60 million in 1998-99.

The governor’s original budget included money for 2 percent raises in each of the next two years. The regents have recommended 4 percent raises for both years of the biennium for faculty and academic staff.

UW officials say that the 1 percent and 2 percent raises given faculty and academic staff the past two years hurt the UW System’s ability to attract quality professors to Madison and other state campuses.

Aiding the UW System in its quest for more state money this budget cycle is the recent System-commissioned study documenting that the UW pumps $8.2 billion into Wisconsin’s economy each year — a ten-fold return on the state’s annual investment in higher education.