Gov. Scott Walker signed the 2015-17 biennial budget into law Sunday afternoon, about 24 hours before he is expected to formally announce his candidacy in the 2016 presidential election.
Walker has one of the strongest line item veto pens of any governor in the country and vetoed 104 items from the Legislature’s final budget passed early Thursday morning.
The budget passed with the most ‘no’ votes in the Senate and Assembly of any of his three budgets as governor.
The University of Wisconsin System will face $250 million in cuts over the next two years. The budget also strikes tenure provisions from state statute and adds language broadly widening the grounds on which tenured faculty can be terminated.
GOP motion could bring big changes to shared governance, tenure
The budget also strips most shared governance language from state statute.
But Walker vetoed an item which would have taken away the power of student government organizations to have oversight over the distribution of student segregated fees.
The approximately $73 billion budget extends the in-state tuition freeze at UW System schools for an additional two years.
Property taxes down 6 years in a row, 4 years of tuition freeze, and more $ for schools.
— Governor Walker (@GovWalker) July 11, 2015
Walker’s signature comes 12 days after the July 1 deadline. The bill spent more than a month in the Joint Finance Committee with extensive debate on issues such as transportation bonding and state funding for a new Milwaukee Bucks Arena.
UW-Madison faces nearly $59 million in cuts over the next academic year, the highest dollar amount of all UW System schools. UW-Milwaukee will take the highest hit percentage-wise, with a 5.1 percent decrease to their operating budget over the next year.
Board of Regents addresses $125 million in state cuts over next year
UW System president Ray Cross said in a statement the system will now look toward the future.
“We thank legislators for their collaborative spirit and willingness to continue an important dialogue,” Cross said. “We did not agree on everything, but we solidified a new partnership during the conversation.”
