The Senate passed AB 40, the 2013-15 biennial budget proposal, just after midnight Friday. The vote on the bill was as expected — Senator Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) joined all 15 Democrats to vote against the bill, which passed 17-16. A final vote on the budget was delayed when Senator Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) asked for a third reading of the bill, forcing a delay until Friday. The Senate reconvened at 12:01 am to vote on the bill, which now goes to Governor Scott Walker for his signature.
Democrats offered dozens of amendments through the hours-long Senate session Thursday, including one that would have allowed the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism to stay on campus, but none passed. PROFS lobbied members of the Assembly and Senate throughout the week, educating them about the proposal and its affect on academic freedom and encouraging them to strike the provision from the budget.
The governor has said he intends to sign the bill into law by July 1, but he has wide veto powers and can make substantial changes to the budget through a line-item veto. PROFS has already begun to reach out to the governor and will lobby hard to remove this unfair measure from the budget.
A fact sheet on the center’s relationship with UW-Madison is below.
