{"id":2509,"date":"2011-12-16T13:52:37","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T18:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=2509"},"modified":"2011-12-16T13:52:37","modified_gmt":"2011-12-16T18:52:37","slug":"2011-legislative-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=2509","title":{"rendered":"2011 Legislative Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Basc_window_Capitol06_0261.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2514\" title=\"Basc_window_Capitol06_0261\" src=\"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Basc_window_Capitol06_0261-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"Basc_window_Capitol06_0261\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Basc_window_Capitol06_0261-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Basc_window_Capitol06_0261-97x150.jpg 97w, https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Basc_window_Capitol06_0261.jpg 391w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><\/a>2011 has been an historic year for both the state of Wisconsin and  UW-Madison. The year began with massive change in the statehouse, continued with a proposal that had the potential to split UW-Madison from UW System, and concludes with a gubernatorial recall election on the horizon. Throughout it all, PROFS has worked hard on behalf of UW-Madison faculty.<\/p>\n<p>Most recently, PROFS has monitored and taken positions on legislation that affect faculty and the university:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> <em><em>Stem Cell Research<\/em> <\/em>&#8212; PROFS <a href=\"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=2075\">registered<\/a> against two  bills that have the potential to sharply limit stem cell research on  campus. Faculty leaders noted that the bills are broadly worded and have  far-reaching consequences both on and off campus. These bills remain in  committee.<\/li>\n<li> <em>Rehired Annuitants<\/em> &#8212; PROFS continues to monitor proposed  legislation that affects rehired annuitants. Several bills remain in  committee, but action is not expected in the near future.<\/li>\n<li> <em>Concealed Carry<\/em> &#8212; PROFS <a href=\"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=1976\">lobbied<\/a> against several bills that  would allow the concealed carry of firearms and weapons on campus. The  legislation that ultimately passed prohibits the university from banning  firearms and weapons from its public grounds. Faculty leaders felt very  strongly that the university should have the ability to ban guns on all  grounds, not just in buildings, and directed PROFS to lobby against the  proposals.<\/li>\n<li> <em>Voter ID<\/em> &#8212; PROFS <a href=\"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=1750\">registered<\/a> against a proposal that would  require acceptable photo identification when voting. PROFS was  particularly concerned with the original legislation that disallowed  student identification from the list of acceptable forms of ID. While  Voter ID passed and was signed into law, the bill was amended to include  UW-Madison IDs among the list of acceptable forms of identification.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>During the state budget process last spring, PROFS <a href=\"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=2101\">scored<\/a> a major  victory when the legislature voted to allow state employees, including  faculty, to make pension contributions pre-tax, thereby reducing one&#8217;s  income tax obligation. This benefit, customary in the private sector,  was not part of the governor&#8217;s original proposal and not available to  state employees. PROFS was the first organization to bring this <a href=\"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=1954\">issue<\/a> to  the attention of the governor and key legislators. This change will  save faculty almost $200 for every $10,000 in salary, about $1,500 a  year for someone earning $75,000.<\/p>\n<p>PROFS also played a key role in the budget debate surrounding  increased administrative flexibilities for UW System.\u00a0When it was  apparent that the plan to separate UW-Madison from UW System would not  be approved, PROFS <a href=\"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=1795\">lobbied<\/a> for administrative flexibilities as directed  by the Faculty Senate in dozens of meetings with key legislators and  staff. Many of those flexibilities were included in the final budget:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> State funding in the form of a block grant and increased  authorization for campus to retain savings and invest them in other  ways.<strong> <\/strong><\/li>\n<li> The ability to implement our own supplemental pay plans as long as they are self-financed. <strong> <\/strong><\/li>\n<li> The right to design and implement an independent personnel system,  in coordination with but separate from UW System&#8217;s personnel system.<\/li>\n<li> Fewer restrictions in purchasing and procurement.<strong> <\/strong><\/li>\n<li> Complete oversight of building projects costing less than $500,000 that are entirely privately funded.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>PROFS took an active role in educating faculty and staff about the  budget repair bill and the biennial budget process through <a href=\"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=1135\">several<\/a> well-attended campus <a href=\"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=1444\">forums<\/a> and continued its series of panel  discussions on the funding of public higher education.<\/p>\n<p>To be most effective, however, PROFS needs the support of ALL the faculty. If you are not already a member, <a href=\"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/membership-form-for-web-revised.pdf\">please consider joining today<\/a>.  Dues are modest &#8212; just one-tenth of one percent of a nine-month  salary, deducted monthly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2011 has been an historic year for both the state of Wisconsin and UW-Madison. The year began with massive change in the statehouse, continued with a proposal that had the potential to split UW-Madison from UW System, and concludes with&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=2509\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,13,17],"tags":[24,33,18],"class_list":["post-2509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-state","category-uw","category-uw-system","tag-2011-13-state-budget","tag-budget-repair-bill","tag-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2509"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2519,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2509\/revisions\/2519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}