A veto in Gov. Scott McCallum's budget left UW System administrators in a fiscal quandary Thursday, as McCallum doubled a proposed 2.5 percent undergraduate out-of-state tuition increase, after fall 2001 tuition bills had already been sent.
State Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, said the increase resulted from McCallum's extensive line-item veto power.
'The budget contained a 2.5 percent increase in out-of-state tuition,' Black said. 'And he used his line-veto power to cross out the two and the decimal.'
While Black said the budget became effective as soon as McCallum signed it, Larry Wold, an administrative officer in the UW-Madison Office of Budget, Planning and Analysis said whether out-of-state students' fall tuition bills will be adjusted has yet to be decided.
'I don't think it's been determined yet if it will apply for the fall,' Wold said.
Freda Harris, assistant vice president in the UW System's OBPA, added that there is no firm decision yet regarding the budget's impact on tuition.
'We have not made any decisions about that yet. We know that it would be difficult to collect it for the fall semester,' Harris said. 'I don't anticipate that we will [increase costs this semester], but it is undetermined at this point.'
However, John Torphy, administrative vice chancellor in UW-Madison's OBPA, said out-of-state students will not see a change in their fall semester tuition bills.
'It won't change the bill for the first semester,' Torphy said. 'Those bills have all gone out.'
It remains unclear how the UW System will implement the price hike.
'We want to have a discussion with the [UW System] president,' Harris said.
'I hope it would be announced within the next month or so,' Torphy added. 'It all depends on what enrollment levels are, what the [UW Board of] Regents requirements are, what discussions they have in the process, what options they have.'
Additional budget highlights included the continued oversight of forestry issues by the Department of Natural Resources, $317 million over the next 10 years for the BioStar program and a $24 million grant for the Madison Initiative.
