(The Center Square) – The Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee approved a $256 million budget investment in the Universities of Wisconsin system after striking a “tentative deal” with Gov. Tony Evers.
The investment would be the largest increase in funds to the UW System in more than two decades, according to Evers.
Although some Republicans on the committee expressed reservation about the university system as a whole, they gave support for the funds as it was the only way to make a deal with Evers and feasibly get the budget across the finish line.
“What was at stake is no secret – Republican lawmakers had long indicated this budget […] 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 funds include $100 million to support UW System campuses statewide, $94 million to increase staff wages and $54 million to help retain and recruit faculty and staff in “high-demand fields of study.”
Seven-million dollars would support 24/7 virtual telehealth mental health services to nearly all students across UW System campuses and $1 million for UW-Green Bay’s early college high school program that enables high school students to earn college credits.
Additionally, more than $840 million would support capital building and infrastructure projects on UW campuses across the state.
A $194 million investment would be made to complete a science center at UW-La Crosse and demolish another hall that lacks fire suppression and has failing mechanical systems.
More than $189 million would renovate a health sciences complex at UW-Milwaukee to transform former hospital buildings into a “cutting-edge, interdisciplinary Health Sciences hub.”
Also, $137 million in funds would go to demolishing a library facility that is more than 60 years old and providing additional renovations and replacements to other buildings at UW-Oshkosh.
The budget would give $160 million for UW-Madison’s Science Hall, which was originally built in 1887 and will undergo a renovation to “restore the building’s historic character” while also addressing accessibility and maintenance issues.
While the motion passed committee with full Republican support, Rep. Alex Dallman, R-Markesan, said the investments did not fully erase or address the UW System’s wider problems, citing the universities’ staffing and salary increases over the past decade despite a reduced student enrollment of 16,000.
“It’s an incredibly big problem that we need to fix,” Dallman said. “There’s a massive amount of bloat in UW, there’s a massive amount of waste and spending in UW, but even then, we’ve decided through these negotiations that we’re not gonna run from UW. We’re gonna reform UW.”
Dallman said that the GOP lawmakers’ decision to compromise with Evers by funding UW was an “important pivot” from their previous stances.
Additionally, the motion would cap the amount of government positions the UW System could create.
“[UW is] one of the only agencies, if not the only agency, that can create government positions unilaterally without any legislative approval,” Dallman said.
Dallman argued as enrollment declines, the UW System should not just be allowed to add high-paid, non-faculty positions to no end at taxpayers’ loss.
The motion was passed 13-3, with Sen. LaTonya Johnson, D-Milwaukee, joining all Republicans to approve the funds.
