{"id":6261,"date":"2014-02-05T11:28:49","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T17:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=6261"},"modified":"2014-02-05T11:28:49","modified_gmt":"2014-02-05T17:28:49","slug":"legislative-update-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=6261","title":{"rendered":"Legislative Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Tax Cuts<\/strong><br \/>\nGovernor Scott Walker <a href=\"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=6212\">announced<\/a> a tax cut proposal at his State of the State address last month. He plans to utilize part of a $912 million budget surplus to lower state income and property taxes. The plan includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05em;\">A property tax cut of about $131 on a $150,000 home, Wisconsin\u2019s median home value<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05em;\">An income tax cut of $44 to $58 for each tax filer<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05em;\">A change in tax policy that would result in the state no longer withholding more income taxes than actually owed, resulting in about $58 more per month per family<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The governor\u2019s plan adds $100 million to the state\u2019s rainy day fund, but raises the structural deficit by about $100 million to $725 million at the end of the biennium. Assembly Republicans have indicated strong support for the plan, while Democrats and Senate Republicans have expressed concern.<\/p>\n<p>The legislature is in special session to consider the proposal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Shared Governance<\/strong><br \/>\nPROFS continues to lobby to preserve shared governance as <a href=\"http:\/\/docs.legis.wisconsin.gov\/statutes\/statutes\/36\/09\">described<\/a> in <a href=\"http:\/\/docs.legis.wisconsin.gov\/statutes\/statutes\/36\">Chapter 36<\/a> of state statutes and UW System Regent policies. Key legislators said they would like to see changes in university governance at a Regent meeting last fall.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fall Elections<\/strong><br \/>\nState Senator Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) announced he will not seek re-election in November. Schultz has been at odds with his Republican Senate colleagues and faced a Republican primary opponent in August.<\/p>\n<p>State Senator Kathleen Vinehout announced last month she will not challenge former Trek executive and Commerce Secretary Mary Burke for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wisconsin Retirement System<\/strong><br \/>\nThe State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) <a href=\"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=6203\">announced<\/a> last month the two funds it manages for the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) posted strong gains in 2013, allowing for the first pay increase in five years for annuitants.<\/p>\n<p>PROFS is currently monitoring two bills affecting WRS:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05em;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/docs.legis.wisconsin.gov\/2013\/proposals\/ab470\">Assembly Bill 470<\/a> would increase the minimum retirement age by two years. If passed, it would apply to workers 40 and younger.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05em;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/docs.legis.wisconsin.gov\/2013\/proposals\/ab471\">Assembly Bill 471<\/a> would calculate benefits based on the five highest earnings periods, a change from the current three-year formula.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both bills are in committee awaiting a public hearing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>UW System<\/strong><br \/>\nThe University of Wisconsin Board of Regents <a href=\"http:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=6163\">appointed<\/a> UW Colleges and UW Extension Chancellor Raymond Cross next president of the University of Wisconsin System. Cross succeeds Kevin Reilly who stepped down in December to take a position with the American Council on Education. UW-Extension Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor Aaron Brower was named Interim Chancellor of UW Colleges and Extension.<\/p>\n<p>Several campuses are in the process of searching for new chancellors \u2013 UW-Green Bay, UW-Stout, UW-Oshkosh, and UW-Colleges and Extension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tax Cuts Governor Scott Walker announced a tax cut proposal at his State of the State address last month. He plans to utilize part of a $912 million budget surplus to lower state income and property taxes. The plan includes:&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=6261\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,19,17],"tags":[20,8,18,86,137,56],"class_list":["post-6261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-profs","category-the-state","category-uw-system","tag-elections","tag-legislation","tag-legislature","tag-shared-governance","tag-uw-system","tag-wrs","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6261","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=6261"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6265,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6261\/revisions\/6265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}