A new semester brings forward new issues to the campus, city and state. The Badger Herald’s Editorial Board has deemed the following six stories as noteworthy issues to follow throughout the coming months.
Blank vs. Walker in budget showdown
Compounding a $2.2 billion projected revenue shortfall and a recent campaign promise to once again cut taxes, it’s not a question of whether Gov. Scott Walker will propose more budget cuts this year, but which line items and by how much.
This shouldn’t be much of a surprise — Walker has built his political career around his ability to slash budgets and lower taxes. However, this isn’t a typical budget year. With a presidential resumé to hone, Walker is entering this budget season with newfound motivation to impress the national Republican base.
On the other end of State Street stakes are equally high. This is University of Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank and UW System President Ray Cross’ first budget request. Given Walker’s tuition freeze promise, the System’s ability to fund initiatives proposed over the past year is contingent on how constricting the state budget will be.
UW avoided making substantial cuts after Walker’s first budget in 2013 by tapping into tuition fund balances. However, in a blog post last fall Blank warned that if the current level of funding is renewed, every department in the system will have to downsize.
To avoid these cuts, Cross requested $95 million to promote long-term growth in research and resources system-wide. However reasonable this request may seem, it’ll surely be at odds with Walker’s “cut cut cut” rhetoric.
Mayoral race pits old against new
It’s the year of the old, the new and the “who?” in city news as Madison gears up for the mayoral election this April.
Five candidates officially declared their bid for mayor on the Jan. 6 deadline: incumbent Mayor Paul Soglin; Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8; former alder Bridget Maniaci; Richard Brown Sr., a systems accountant for Dane County’s Controller’s Office; and 2012 UW graduate Christopher Daly.
Soglin is somewhat of an old fogey in Madison politics — this election is his attempt at a fourth term in the mayoral office. Whether or not the familiarity of Soglin’s name will play in his favor, however, has been put in flux by some of the younger blood. Namely, Resnick, whose resume paints a tech-savvy entrepreneur interested in combating Madison’s white elephants: crime, homelessness and the socioeconomic divide.
Election year lit a flame under Soglin’s administration to address some of the city’s more social issues with the biggest and most generous city budget to date. Maniaci is in between Madison and her graduate program in Pennsylvania, leaving her out of touch with the voter base. Twenty-five-year-old Daly’s hippie-dom might gain him support on Willy Street, but his lack of experience in public office makes him an all-around unlikely candidate. Brown may have this experience but lacks name recognition.
Will this defining election be “out with the old, in with the new,” or one of those “do what you know” moments?
Walker 2016?
“My plan … is to be here for four years … it is a position that I am committed to,” Walker said during his first gubernatorial debate with challenger Mary Burke last fall. However, with the coming of the New Year we are one step closer 2016 and many are beginning to doubt Walker’s conviction in this promise.
Even before Rep. Paul Ryan’s, R-Janesville, recent announcement not to run for president — a move some say was to get out of Walker’s way — many Wisconsinites believed a Walker candidacy was inevitable. Among Republican presidential candidates, Walker remains a strong candidate for nomination in 2016. His potential opponents for the nomination include former senator Jeb Bush; Gov. Chris Christie, R-New Jersey; and even former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, R-Massachusetts.
For Wisconsin, the state could see its first female governor after all! With a Walker victory, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch would become acting governor. Although some have well-founded concerns about governor with a presidential agenda, Walker’s bald spot might be destined for the national spotlight.
Downtown culture may see changes
Once ubiquitous, massive margaritas with a preposterous amount of salt on the rims are now in short supply on the 100 block of State Street. At the end of last semester, we profiled Tiki Shack in our “Melvin Gordon Award for Running Like Hell.” With its previous owner skipping town and one of the potential new owners dealing with some, um, ongoing issues (read: allegedly attacking two 18-year-olds while drunk on a Saturday afternoon), Tiki Shack’s future is far from certain. And just down the street, Diego’s “Mexican Bistro” shut its doors for good last week.
It’s hard to imagine the city government is too sad to see them go. Both Tiki Shack and Diego’s have played host to a variety of troubling incidents recently, including a number of brawls and an even greater variety of underage students with bad fake IDs — but good money.
This begs the question of whether this is the beginning of a trend for the downtown area as a whole. Could these closings signal the start of a change in the downtown bar culture? A movement toward a slightly less, well, Tiki Shack-ey sort of downtown? Or is this just a short-lived anomaly in Madison’s much-discussed drinking culture?
Only time will tell. But until then, thirsty Madisonians may have to venture outside of the 100 block to get their bad margarita fix.
Diversity framework is another empty effort
Rightly so, diversity is the issue that simply will not go away for the University of Wisconsin. On one hand, it is faced with the so-far-empty threat of legal action by the conservative legal group Project on Fair Representation because of a so-called race-conscious admissions process. On the other hand, the university has been criticized for failing to attract enough minority students, especially those from within state borders, as minority enrollment has been consistently … underwhelming.
Over the years, the university has spun its wheels attempting to address the lack of diversity with little change. This year will be no different. Last May, the university unveiled a “revamped” diversity framework which included 30 recommendations for improving diversity around campus. Last summer, 14 of the recommendations were identified as priorities for this academic year.
There is no question about the benefits of having a racially and socio-economically diverse student body and faculty at the flagship Madison campus. Without proper financial resources there is no hope of success, whether that be a more robust financial aid system or increases in faculty salaries. The university can hold as many campus forums as they want, but it won’t change UW’s diversity.
Make or break year for Revelry
With the Mifflin Street Block Party reduced to a foggy memory of drunken confrontations with the Madison Police Department, the Revelry Music and Arts Festival has gained a tentative foothold in student life.
Revelry made its debut in 2013, and coordinators managed to pull off a successful yet small event, despite a mere three-and-a-half months to book acts and opposition from students who saw the music fest as the final nail in Mifflin’s coffin.
Due to a promising start, expectations for future Revelry festivals rose, and Revelry 2014 saw increased turnout, although there was seemingly no evidence that coordinators had taken advantage of the extra planning time.
For this year and the future, the success of Revelry hinges on the coordinators’ ability to book at least decent headliners. Last year, the end-of-the-year music festival introduced acts such as G-Eazy, Wacka Flocka Flame and Dillon Francis, a shrug-worthy lineup that does little to convince students to abandon day drinking and hopes of a Mifflin revival.
Unless Revelry coordinators make choosing an eye-catching lineup a top priority, the festival will become a shadow of the tired Freakfest, an event students feel obligated to attend due to its notoriety, rather than an attraction because of the acts it features.
