Gov. Tony Evers and Republican legislative leaders reached an agreement Tuesday to a $256 million increase for the University of Wisconsin System — the largest funding increase in about two decades.
This would be a major turnaround for the UW System in the budget after Republican lawmakers threatened an $87 million cut just two weeks ago. The UW Board of Regents and Evers originally proposed a record-high $856 million increase for the system, a total that would bring the state’s public higher education funding in line with the national median.
“What was at stake is no secret — Republican lawmakers had long indicated this budget would not invest in child care providers, would provide no new increases for our K-12 schools, and would cut nearly $90 million from our UW System,” Evers said in a statement. “But I never stopped believing we could work together to reach consensus and pass a bipartisan budget, and I’m proud of the months of work that went into getting to where we are today.”
The UW System agreement would provide over $100 million to support UW campuses across the state, helping to stabilize after campus closures, layoffs and program cuts and consolidations, while ensuring UW institutions remain “economic” and “workforce” hubs.
The deal would also allocate over $94 million to increasing employee wages, $7 million to provide virtual mental health services to students and $54 million to assist with recruiting and retaining faculty in high-demand fields.
An additional $840 million was allocated to help capital building projects on UW campuses, including almost $19 million for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Rheta’s Dining Hall, $5 million to help plan funding to relocate and the demolition of the Mosse Humanities building and more than $160 million for the renovation of UW-Madison’s Science Hall.
The deal comes after months of negotiations with Republican lawmakers who cut over 600 items from Evers’ proposed budget, including two financial aid proposals.
“With these new investments, the UWs can do more to provide the educational opportunities students deserve and parents expect,” Jay Rothman, UW System president, said in a statement.
Reforms
To greenlight the UW System’s budget increase, Republicans extracted key policy reforms. The UW System will be required to increase the minimum workload requirement for faculty members, and maintain GPR or PR funded positions — meaning either general state taxes or a specific agency or program.
The UW System must also comply with the Legislative Audit Bureau and their annual audit to evaluate if the System correctly follows new faculty credit workloads and requirements in the bill.
UW-Madison faculty advocacy group PROFs said they are “heartened” by this new proposal with increased funding, and grateful to Evers and his advocacy for public higher education. Yet they expressed concern that the agreement infringed on areas previously under the purview of the universities, not the Legislature.
Tax Cuts
The tentative agreement includes a $1.3 billion income tax cut, mainly targeting middle class individuals, with around $180 being cut from taxes annually for more than 1.6 million people.
The deal would also eliminate income taxes for some Wisconsin retirees and expand the state’s second-lowest tax bracket.
Republican legislative leaders applauded the deal for providing the middle class and retirees with meaningful tax relief.
“This budget delivers on our two biggest priorities: tax relief for Wisconsin and reforms to make government more accountable,” Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said in a statement.
The Joint Finance Committee passed the budget which will now head to the Legislature as early as Wednesday for approval before going to Evers who has the option to veto line items.
Zoey Elwood is copy chief for The Daily Cardinal. She also covers state news.
