UW System Regents Propose Budget for 2021 to 2023
Sunday, August 23rd, 2020 -- 7:56 AM
(AP) -The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents on Thursday unanimously approved a state budget request that would increase spending by 3.5% in each of the next two years, create a new program to cover the tuition of lower-income families and borrow up to $1 billion to mitigate losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.The $6.4 billion budget would also continue a 7-year-old tuition freeze that university leaders have argued for years is unsustainable but that is politically popular. The spending plan, which includes $1.9 billion in state funding, is very much a starting point in negotiations that will be ongoing over the next year. The proposal now goes to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who will decide what to include in his budget that is submitted to the Republican-controlled Legislature early next year. Lawmakers will make further changes before sending it back to Evers next summer for his signature or veto.
UW’s interim president, former four-term Republican governor Tommy Thompson, vowed to advocate strongly for the budget, which would increase spending by nearly $96 million in the budget that begins in July 2021. He argues that UW should be well funded because it is an economic engine that will fuel the state’s recovery from COVID-19
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