State legislators received input from faculty, students and alumni of the UW System Tuesday concerning two state Assembly bills that would reduce the power of the UW System Board of Regents and create a sales tax exemption for textbooks.
Jay Smith, president of the Board of Regents, spoke at the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities public hearing on AB 709, which seeks to return to the Legislature the power it had prior to 2001 to set the salaries of the highest paid professionals in the UW System. In November, the board decided to give a number of top officials raises, including a 43 percent pay increase to UW System President Katharine Lyall.
\I believe [this bill] is about one person'Katharine Lyall'the longest-serving university system president in the nation,"" Smith said while giving testimony. ""The question is, 'Should the UW System president be paid at a market rate?' The regents believe strongly that she should.""
Chris Ladwig, legislative analyst for the chair of the Colleges and Universities Committee and Rep. Robin Kriebach, R-Eau Claire, said representatives believe university officials should be paid fair market price for their services but that the power to set the salaries should be held by the Legislature.
""The reason Rob [Kriebach] signed on to the bill is because the legislators are the ones receiving the calls from angry constituents,"" he said. ""It's the legislator's job to answer to the people for that.""
A final committee vote on the bill was delayed until Thursday.
The committee passed AB 264, which would make textbooks cheaper for students by declaring them exempt from the state sales tax.
""It seemed to be pretty popular in the committee because people are concerned about how affordable it is for Wisconsin residents to attend schools,"" said committee member Rep. Terese Berceau, D-Madison. ""We keep offering sales tax exemptions for all kinds of things lately, especially if it is something business wants and we don't do much to support students.""
Despite its strong support at the committee level, Berceau said there were too many questions raised with the technical language of the bill for it to have any chance of making it to the Assembly floor this session.
The bill's author, Rep. Judy Krawczyk, R-Green Bay, said she was disappointed with her fellow legislators for nitpicking the bill to death.
""No matter how good you draft a bill, someone will come in and say this could be done or that could be done,"" she said. ""But the intent of the bill is good.\
