Evers, Steil cast ‘no’ votes on UW budget

Governor candidate says expenses should be $70M more due to tuition freeze

MADISON — For those keeping score, the only votes Thursday against budget requests the University of Wisconsin System will send to the state came from a Democrat and a Republican member of the Board of Regents running for high-profile political offices.

No capital building projects were singled out for discussion before the board approved a request for $1.7 billion in state-supported bonding authority.

Regent Bryan Steil, the Republican candidate for U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s congressional seat, cast the sole vote against the capital budget because he said the request was too large, and the UW System needed to better identify its highest priorities.

Regent and state superintendent of schools Tony Evers, the Democrat running against Republican Gov. Scott Walker in the fall election, voted against the UW System’s $6.3 billion operating budget because of what he called “a strategic error.”

Evers said the $107.5 million requested from state taxpayer dollars for UW operating expenses should have been $70 million higher because of potential revenue loss from an ongoing tuition freeze for undergrad residents that began in fall 2013.

Here’s the math behind the extra $70 million Evers wanted to add:

Each 1 percent increase in tuition per year potentially generates $8 million, based on current enrollment levels. A tuition increase tied to inflation — roughly 2.5 percent — would have generated about $40 million over the next two fiscal years.

When the state passes a pay plan for the UW System, 30% of funding for that plan traditionally comes from tuition. A pay increase of 2.5% — again, tied to the rate of inflation — would amount to about $30 million.

The two add up to $70 million. “I think it’s a fool’s errand to wait until December,” Evers told reporters afterward. “The die is cast.”

Regents discussed asking for inflationary pay increases for employees, but those requests to the state compensation board traditionally are made in December.

“We’re playing with a very weak hand if we wait until December,” said Evers, who hopes to be elected governor in November. “We’re sending a message it’s not a priority. If it’s a priority, let’s put it in the budget (now).”

Evers said if the UW System is going to freeze resident undergrad tuition, the state should “fund the freeze,” or make up the revenue that the UW System otherwise would have brought in from students. The stated goal of the tuition freeze is to reduce student debt.

Several board members said they think it’s time to start laying the groundwork for an inflationary tuition increase in the near future.

After the meeting, Steil said that he believes some building project costs could be scaled back.

He singled out student fee increases tied to replacing the Natatorium recreation facility on the UW-Madison campus. That project was approved as part of a 2014 student referendum to increase fees for several recreation facility projects. Fees for the gymnasium/Natatorium are scheduled to go up $178 in 2020 to support those projects.

Steil said he voted against a fee increase for work on student unions at UW-Madison when he was a student there. Students know they need to pay for academics, he said, but he has issues with requiring them to pay too much for things that aren’t part of the university’s core mission.

“I look at our state investment,” Steil said. “Students don’t need every amenity that they would like, and where student debt is such an issue, every dollar spent needs to be justified. Is this advancing the educational needs of students?”