Category: The state

PROFS and ASPRO will host a campus forum on the state budget at 4 pm, Tuesday, May 2 in the Wisconsin Idea Room in the Education Building, 1000 Bascom Mall. This event is open to the public and refreshments will be served.

Our panel:

• State Representative Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison), member Colleges & Universities Committee
• State Representative Robert Wittke (R-Racine), member Colleges & Universities Committee
• Crystal Potts, Director of State Relations, UW-Madison
• UW Madison Professor J. Michael Collins (School of Human Ecology and La Follette School of Public Affairs)

PROFS Legislative Representative Jack O’Meara will moderate.

In February, Governor Tony Evers announced a $104 billion spending plan that reflected the state’s record $7.1 billion surplus. The governor’s budget focused on increased funding for K-12 education and aid to local governments, middle-class tax cuts, and seed funding for a paid parental leave program for most of the state’s workers, but Republican leaders said they plan to work off the current base budget and create their own plan in the Joint Finance Committee.

The governor also announced a $3.8 billion capital budget, which directed $1.8 billion to UW System. Evers’ plan included four major projects at UW-Madison: a new Engineering Building, a new Athletics practice facility, new space for the Art Department, and restoration of Music Hall, but his proposal was deadlocked in the State Building Commission, leaving the Republican-led Joint Finance Committee to determine the capital budget as well.

Our panelists will offer insight on what a GOP-crafted budget may look like and how Governor Evers may use his veto authority once the bill reaches his desk later this summer.