WI Governor's New Budget has an effect on UW Schools

Email from UW - Stout Chancellor:

TO: All Students, Faculty and Staff
FROM: Chancellor Charles W. Sorensen
DATE: February 18, 2009
SUBJECT: 2009-11 state budget

Now that Gov. Jim Doyle has given his 2009-11 state budget to the Legislature, we can begin the process of analyzing what his various proposals would mean for UW-Stout in terms of our operations and impacts on students, faculty and staff. We have begun that analysis and will keep all of you informed when we have solid numbers to report.

However, a few things are clear after listening to the governor and reading the documents that are available:

• The budget reduces the amount of state tax support for the UW System by $100 million over the next two years. The budget also calls for a 1 percent across-the-board cut for all non-federal funds for all state agencies, which could mean $49 million for the UW System. Finally, the budget transfers $25 million to financial aid from auxiliary accounts.
  
• Many students would be protected from tuition increases, even the modest ones the governor said he expected for 2009-11. The budget provides a $12 million increase to the UW System for need-based financial aid, along with $24 million in additional funds for the Higher Education Aids Board and the UW Wisconsin Higher Education Grant program. This is intended to offset tuition increases for students from families that earn up to the state median family incomes of $60,000 a year. This is in addition to the $500 increase in the maximum Pell Grant, contained in the federal stimulus package, which also included expanded work study funding and refundable tax credits for working families.
  
• Our employees will be called on to sacrifice to meet the challenges of the new state budget. The governor has said repeatedly, and reiterated last night, that state employees will have no pay raises for the next two fiscal years, although it does not appear the 2 percent increase scheduled for June will be affected. The governor did say that his budget would not impose furloughs or mass layoffs in the state workforce, either. In California, layoff notices were sent to 20,000 state workers Tuesday. At Arizona State University, the university eliminated up to 550 positions through attrition and layoffs, a number that could grow by an additional 1,000 jobs; and each of the university's 12,000 employees had to take up to 15 unpaid days off by June 30. Layoffs and furloughs have been reported in states across the country.
  
• The budget includes funding for faculty recruitment and retention of $5 million in the first year of the biennium and an additional $5 million in the second, the bulk of which goes to UW-Madison.
  
• The budget includes domestic partner benefits for same-sex and opposite-sex partners.
  
• The budget gives faculty and academic staff the right to bargain collectively.
  

Keep in mind that this is just the first step in a long state budget process. The document will be reviewed and amended by the Joint Finance Committee before it is sent to the state Senate and Assembly for amendments. Then the governor will act on the final proposal.

UW System President Kevin Reilly said in a statement that the budget will present serious challenges to the System, including fewer class sections, larger class sizes, reduced student services and other impacts.

We need to work hard over the coming months to minimize the affect these budget cuts will have on our top priority – maintaining a quality education for our students. We have a strong administrative team, dedicated faculty and staff and committed students who I know will come together to accomplish this task.

You be the judge...