University of Wisconsin System officials wrote a letter Friday asking state administrators about references to UW in the gaming compacts that have been at the center of fiery debate at the capital in recent weeks.
University of Wisconsin System President Katharine Lyall and UW Board of Regents President Guy Gottschalk sent a letter to the department of administration secretary Marc Marotta inquiring about the provisions for the UW System contained in a gaming compact arranged between Gov. Jim Doyle and the Forest County Potawatomi and signed on Feb. 19.
In the letter, Lyall and Gottschalk said they had been asked by interested parties, including Regents and state legislators as to the meaning of certain lines of the compact. The provisions outline a one-time payment by electronic transfer of $34 million in 2004 and $43.6 million in 2005 to the state of Wisconsin for the benefit of the UW. The compacts said the money would be transferred ?in lieu of and to supplant funds that would have otherwise been provided by the University of Wisconsin from the general fund of the State of Wisconsin.?
?The language in the gaming compact came as something of a surprise to the Board of Regents,? Gottschalk said. ?There was some concern that there was a transfer of funds in the first year of the biennium that was not there in the second year, which would be an additional cut to the system.?
Gottschalk said he believed it was not the intent of Doyle?s budget team to issue an additional funding cut to UW through the gaming compact but that the language was somewhat unclear.
?We?re just seeking a clarification from Mr. Marotta on the language in the compact,? Gottschalk said.
UW is already facing $250 million in cuts to spending in Doyle?s budget, which is currently under review of the legislature. The gaming compacts Doyle negotiated with the state?s tribes would secure an additional $237 million for the state?s general fund and constitutes a pillar of Doyle?s balanced budget plan.
The Republican-held legislature became enraged when they learned that the compacts were being negotiated in perpetuity and rushed a bill through that would provide legislative oversight in tribal gaming compacts.
Doyle vetoed a Senate bill at the end of last month that would have given state legislators the final say in compact negotiations. On March 4, the Senate missed obtaining an override to Doyle?s veto by one vote.
?Legislative oversight would have allowed the people of Wisconsin to be represented in the negotiation process,? said Sen. Ron Brown, R-Eau Claire. ?I?m disappointed that more Senators didn?t do the right thing and support policy over politics with their vote.?
Last Friday, a bill was rushed through the Assembly, which would feature similar restrictions on gaming arrangements as the vetoed Senate bill. The Assembly?s State Affairs Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Government Reform Committees will hold a joint public hearing today on the bill at the capital.
The new bill would allow legislators to keep gaming compacts from being arranged to last more than 10 years.
?Nearly all mortgages are done on a 30-year basis,? said Greg Garvin, tribal executive administrative officer of the Ho-Chunk Nation. ?Yet the State Republicans want Native Americans to have to finance their businesses on terms they wouldn?t finance their own home. That?s just nuts.?
