State Representatives Mark Pocan (D-Madison) and Robin Vos (R-Burlington) were recently interviewed by Steve Walters of WisconsinEye. Vos is co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee; Pocan served as co-chair last session.
The pair discussed the proposed public authority status for UW-Madison and said that the proposal is not likely to pass the Joint Finance Committee in its current form. They did, however, agree that increased flexibilities are important to the university. A link to the video is here. The discussion about UW-Madison is approximately 18 minutes from the beginning.