Last week I wrote to you concerning the Assembly's proposed 2007-2009 biennial budget. As more details emerge, I would like to share them with you and urge you to pass this information on to our various stakeholders for them to better understand how these cuts would affect our programming.

The UW System needs $151 million in general public revenue (GPR) funds to honor its current commitments to UW students and parents, and to its public service mission, but the Assembly budget provides only $30 million in GPR.

In contrast, the Senate budget adopted the governor's proposal to allocate $182 million in GPR to the UW System, which included funds for new initiatives such as the Growth Agenda, increased costs, needed improvements, and additional financial aid to students.

The Assembly's decision to inadequately fund the UW System budget by $120 million would reduce the base budgets of the UW Colleges and UW-Extension by significant amounts and have a direct impact on access and quality. Additionally, the proposed $65 million cut to the All Agency fund in the capital budget directly threatens capital equipment for both our institutions. The UW System is already ranked as one of the leanest, most efficient public universities in the nation.

UW Colleges

If the Assembly version of the budget were to pass, the UW Colleges would be cut by a $3.8 million GPR base reduction, the equivalent of 21 full-time positions for instructors and support staff. The proposed cuts would also negatively impact the ability to serve communities where UW Colleges campuses are located.

Proposed cuts to the Lawton Grant Program jeopardize grants to about 180 UW Colleges students each year of the biennium. Proposed reductions to the Wisconsin Higher Education Grant (WHEG) Program would reduce funding from 06-07 levels, and eliminate a link that increases financial aid along with tuition.

UW-Extension

UW-Extension would face a $12.8 million budget hole and the following would be affected:

Most or all Wisconsin-produced programming on Wisconsin Public Television and Wisconsin Public Radio would be eliminated along with 90 staff positions. This would affect millions of viewers and listeners. In addition, the Assembly budget cut would lead to a long-term degradation of the broadcast system because Educational Communications Board (ECB) field engineers would be cut by about half. Those cuts would hamper the reliability of the signals they send out not just for public programming, but for educational services and emergency warnings. In addition, cuts of this magnitude would significantly reduce federal funding. A portion of WPT/WPR's matching funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is based on a multiplier of non-federal funds received. The proposed budget cut would result in a decline in CPB funding to UW-Extension and the ECB of more than $650,000 annually.

The School for Workers would be put out of business and seven faculty, four full-time support staff, and several part-time employees would be out of work. The School for Workers, a UW department, provides statewide programming and offers courses in communities throughout Wisconsin. It offers instruction and consultation to workers about their employment rights and how they can have a voice in their workplace, in the economy, and in society. It also provides services to joint labor-management groups that directly benefit both the employers and their workers.

Further, the entire GPR appropriation for the Wisconsin Humanities Council (WHC) would be erased. Not one nickel of current state funding goes to salaries, overhead, or other operating expenses at WHC. All state money goes right back to communities in its re-grant program. The WHC is already one of the most under-funded state councils in the nation at the state level. Wisconsin gets $72,600 a year from the state for humanities initiatives, while states like Louisiana, Connecticut, and Virginia get well over two million dollars a year. Elimination of state funding will likely reduce the amount of federal grants and private money that the WHC can leverage and bring into the state. Currently, it brings in more than $700,000 in federal money to Wisconsin.

I know you are as disappointed as I am about these proposed cuts. I urge you to share their proposed impacts with our various stakeholders who would be affected by our programs. Ways you can help include the following:

• Phone, email or write your legislators
• Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper
• Discuss the situation with others in your community to raise awareness

Next Steps

The next step in this process is for the legislative conference committee, comprised of four Republicans and four Democrats, to try and reach a compromise on the state budget. If a compromise is reached, it then goes to both houses of the legislature for a yes or no vote, and neither house can make changes at that point. The budget would finally go to the governor who can approve or veto it. Please see attached diagram on the budget process.

As you can see, this could well be a long process. I will keep you fully informed as we move ahead.

Kind regards,

David