While Gov. Jim Doyle's budget proposal does not include any new monies for the cogeneration plant that is critical for heating and cooling at UW-Madison, campus officials said the project will continue to move forward toward its planned installation in two years.
Doyle said there was a low priority in the budget and currently there is not enough money available to finance the project.
In 2005, the campus is expected to run out of capacity to heat and cool more buildings. This has driven officials to continue on schedule without state funds.
\We are working with the Department of Administration and evaluating what our options are to meet the really quite critical needs we have to increase our chilled water and steam capacity for the campus,"" said Alan Fish, director of facilities and planning management.
A few weeks ago, John Torphy, UW-Madison vice chancellor of administration, said the university planned for more than $80 million of the project to be funded by the state. Yet Fish and Madison Gas and Electric officials said they had not been counting on new monies in the 2003-'05 budget.
""We were not looking for money in the operating budget because this is a capital project. Hopefully we can find a way to not require any state finance for whatever we do in the next two years,"" Fish said.
