UW System Board of Regents' request to include $1 million for domestic partner benefits of system employees suffered a large blow Tuesday when the state's Joint Committee on Finance recommended against including such funds in the state's 2005-'07 budget.
\It is impossible to think of extending employee benefits to a whole new demographic of people at the same time we are watching the UW System struggle to cover their current set of bills,"" said Finance Committee Co-Chair Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah.
UW-Madison is the only school in the Big Ten that does not offer employee benefits for domestic partners. The regents have asked for the provision to be included in past budgets. Gov. Jim Doyle's Feb. 8 budget proposal was the first time benefits for domestic partners of state employees were included.
At the Capitol Tuesday, representatives of the regents asked for the $1 million as part of its budget recommendations presented to the JCF, which is in the preliminary stages of crunching Doyle's budget proposal.
The Republicans who control the JCF said it is purely a fiscal matter, and not an issue of giving benefits to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender couples, although heterosexual partners of system employees would also be covered under Doyle's proposal.
""This is not about trying to exclude people, it's about funding the UW System in very tight budget times,"" said Rep. David Ward, R-Fort Atkinson.
In addition to the funding for domestic partner benefits, the regents asked the JCF to support Doyle's proposed increases in financial aid, $5 million in funding for a faculty retention fund and the addition of 125 faculty positions, as well as a competitive pay plan to retain and recruit quality faculty members, something Doyle's proposal does not include.
""We have been managing the budget reductions very well, but we have only been able to do it over the years by limiting what we do for Wisconsin,"" UW System Senior Executive Vice President Don Mash told the committee.
A long-term goal both Mash and Regent Donald Pruitt advocated is laying the groundwork now to start reversing a slide the state has seen in terms of residents with baccalaureate degrees-Wisconsin is 31st out of 50 states. Mash added 80 percent of system graduates remain in-state after college, so it is imperative the state begins to reinvest in the UW System.
""To compete in the knowledge-based economy of the 21st century, we must do better, and we can,"" Pruitt said.
