Assembly Republicans unveiled their 2017 agenda Wednesday, a plan which includes extending the tuition freeze at UW System schools and increasing the presence of conservatives on campuses.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, introduced the three-part plan, which they named the “Forward” agenda, after the state’s motto. The set of proposals includes reforming the tax code, improving schools and bolstering public safety.
Rep. David Murphy, R-Greenville, introduced the section on higher education, which is centered on keeping in-state tuition at UW System schools frozen. The length of the freeze is at issue, however, with Gov. Scott Walker saying he is open to limiting the freeze to one year instead of two at the request of UW System President Ray Cross.
“There has been a couple of different proposals broached … I personally support a two-year freeze but I don’t speak for the caucus in general,” said Murphy, who is chair of the state Assembly’s higher education committee. “I think the most important thing is looking at the dollars going into the system and the performance-based funding.”
Murphy and Vos said that while they preferred keeping the freeze in place for two years, their caucus was “keeping all options on the table” to keep tuition down. Vos noted that he would be open to adjusting tuition prices to match inflation in the second year of a freeze.
Another priority for Republicans in the next session, according to Murphy, was increasing intellectual diversity on campuses. Recently, top Republicans, including Vos, have expressed concern that the vast majority of speakers at UW schools are liberal and that conservative views are being marginalized.
“We are advocating for more intellectual diversity on campuses,” Murphy said. “The Board of Regents have adopted a policy on free speech and now we want them to do something about that and put some teeth behind that.”
Neither Murphy nor the 30-page agenda specified what legislation the caucus is considering to achieve that goal.
Other proposals floated included giving every high school freshman in Wisconsin a laptop and Internet access to complete homework assignments, stepping up programs to fight opioid addiction and a “Blue Lives Matter” bill authored by state Rep. David Steffen, R-Green Bay, which would classify all crimes against law enforcement as hate crimes.
Another key provision is fully funding transportation projects in the next budget, something which Gov. Scott Walker has warned will be difficult to achieve.
“We know there is no magic bullet," Vos said. "Eliminating roundabouts isn’t going to solve the billion-dollar deficit...We know that we have borrowed too much in the past and that as cars have become more and more fuel efficient, revenues have remained stagnant while costs have really increased over time.”
Some Republicans, including Walker, are hesitant to raise taxes or fees to fund the construction. Vos said all options for funding remain on the table at this point.
Democrats slammed the agenda as nothing more than politics ahead of a vital election in November.
“This was just an election year platitude press conference to try and snooker people into believing that these are the things they care about, when in fact all the measures of the state show that they have failed completely,” Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, told Fox 11 News.
