A voluntary, nonprofit organization representing University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty held a state budget forum Tuesday to discuss Gov. Scott Walker’s new biennial budget and its effects on state and campus affairs.
The forum, hosted by PROFS, included experts on various portions of the budget, including Darrell Bazzell, the UW-Madison Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration and Andrew Reschovsky, a UW-Madison professor of public affairs and applied economics.
The speakers presented their analyses of the proposed budget plan, highlighting its future effects on higher education, Medicare and job creation.
The proposed biennial budget, which would take effect this July if approved by the state legislature, would give a $181 million funding increase to the UW System in the upcoming biennium, following a $315 million cut two years ago.
The state would give the UW System funding through a newly formatted block grant, which gives the universities more flexibility on how to spend their money.
Bazzell said that while the new budget plan increases university funding, there are still some funding issues under the current proposal, because it does not increase need-based financial aid.
Additionally, he said the budget in its current form would remove the tuition cap schools in the UW System currently must abide by when calculating tuition for the upcoming year.
However, student representatives from UW-Madison have said they would work with state government to try to re-establish a tuition cap within the budget. The current tuition cap for UW-Madison prevents the university from increasing the school’s tuition by more than 5.5 percent of what it currently is, but student representatives have said they would like the cap lowered to between 3 and 4 percent.
Additionally, the budget is designed to grant the university new flexibilities with its pay plan, which provides salary increases to well performing employees, as well as the ability to create its own Human Resources system, according to Bazzell. He said the HR redesign, which would develop new employee compensation and benefits programs and eliminate overlap in employee job titles, is expected to take place by July.
