WisEye Morning Minute: JFC Executive Session on UW System Budget

On May 28, the Joint Committee on Finance held an executive session to discuss the budget for the University of Wisconsin System. Senator LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) argued that the UW System helps retain and attract students which would address the worker shortage in Wisconsin. "81 percent of students who attend college at our UW-Systems, after five years, remain here." Senator Duey Stroebel (R-Saukville) argued that he needs to keep his constituents and other tax payers in mind who didn't attend college or made alternative choices to college. "I do kind of get a kick out of the word investment, and I can buy the word investment to a point, but one person's investment is sometimes another person's tax and spending." In the end, JFC Republicans budgeted $58 million more for UW System, but required JFC approval of how $45 million of that is spent. This is compared to the $150 million that Governor Tony Evers had proposed. JFC also decided to continue the six-year freeze on resident undergraduate tuition, but doesn't include $50 million to pay for freeze.
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