State Relations

Included in the amendment was a removal of the provision that took away of health insurance benefits and WRS participation for LTEs.

8. Elimination of Retirement and Health Care Coverage Benefits for Limited-Term Employees

Remove the provision which would prohibit state employees who have limited-term appointments from participating in the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) and prohibit these employees from receiving health insurance coverage under the state employee plan offered by the Group Insurance Board.

http://www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/February11/0216/0216lfbamendment.pdf

Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, which includes controversial provisions to strip some collective bargaining rights from state employees, passed the Joint Finance Committee on a partisan 12-4 vote.

The committee amended the bill to remove a Walker provision striking health insurance and pension benefits for limited term employees and to give civil service protections to local government employees.

The bill next moves to the Senate tomorrow.

Today, Political Science faculty member David Canon and Director of State Relations Don Nelson testified in front  of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Elections on Senate Bill 6 (Assembly Bill 7) regarding requiring voters to present photo ID when voting.  The testimony focused the bill’s lack of allowing student/faculty/staff IDs to be used as valid photo IDs at polling stations.  Additionally, Constitutional questions were raised and the security of the university IDs were discussed. The bill has not yet been scheduled for a vote in committee.

Governor Scott Walker has scheduled his first State of the State speech that Governor’s annually give to a joint session of the Legislature.

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Included on Tom Still’s 2011 wish list for business growth was giving the University of Wisconsin System freedom to manage its own resources. “By any measure, the UW System is one of the state’s leading economic engines,” wrote Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council and the Wisconsin Innovation Network, in Sunday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It attracts more than $1.1 billion a year in research spending, partners with companies large and small, and routinely churns out graduates who can compete in a global economy. But when it comes to hiring and retaining world-class talent, constructing a building on time and buying supplies, it is treated like any other state agency.”

Read Still’s full column here.

A new chart shows a range of potential operating flexibilities for the university, and some of the the statutes, rules or policies that would need to change to accommodate them. View the chart

UW-Madison recently celebrated the news that for the first time in its history, the university brought in more than $1 billion in outside research funding and continued its streak as one of two public or private universities (along with Johns Hopkins University) to be in the top five schools for research over the last 20 years.

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Chancellor Biddy Martin spent some time talking with WisconsinEye’s Steve Walters about the New Badger Partnership. View the interview courtesy of WisconsinEye.

Members of the audience at a campus forum Wednesday told University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin that the university should do more to engage state residents, along with political leaders and candidates, in the dialogue about the New Badger Partnership. Read more »