UW REBUKED

Scott Walker proposes UW tuition freeze, much smaller funding increase

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/scott-walker-proposes-uw-tuition-freeze-much-smaller-funding-increase-ns9v8bm-207619231.html

JS Online – Jason Stein and Karen Herzog – 5/15/2013

Madison - Following a furor among lawmakers over the University of Wisconsin System's sizable financial reserves, Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday recommended freezing tuition and scaling back his proposed budget increase for state universities and colleges by $94 million over the next two years.

The Republican governor in February recommended increasing taxpayer funding for UW schools by $181 million in the 2013-'15 state budget. But Walker changed course and reduced that proposed increase to roughly $87 million over two years after a review last month by GOP lawmakers and nonpartisan legislative staff uncovered UW System reserves spread across hundreds, if not thousands of accounts.

The $87 million increase would be enough to still meet the university's costs for continuing existing programs, such as increases in debt payments and staff pay and benefits, Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said. New programs called for in the budget bill would have to be funded out of the UW's existing budget.

A freeze in tuition would deny the UW System $42 million over two years that it was seeking through a proposed 2% tuition increase in each of the two years.

Walker's administration secretary, Mike Huebsch, laid out the changes in a memo Wednesday to the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, which is making its own changes to the governor's budget.

"The Walker administration is saddened that the UW System did not show leadership during a fiscal crisis and instead made the burden of a public higher education heavier while stockpiling cash," Huebsch said in the letter. Huebsch also alleged the UW System was untruthful and "more interested in protecting its bank account than in ensuring a quality higher education."

"This is a very sharp rebuke," said Gerald Whitburn, a UW System regent and chairman of its budget committee. "The message to (UW System headquarters) is to step up transparency big time, and I expect that's exactly what you're going to see in the future."

The UW System had more than $1 billion in reserve as of June 2012, of which $648 million was unrestricted. The total reserve is on track to climb to nearly $1.2 billion by the end of June, when the fiscal year ends, UW officials have projected.

Walker's proposal would change course and reduce those reserves by giving the university less new money from sources such as income and sales taxes as well as holding the line on tuition.

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