March 2007 Newsletter
Priscilla Thain, Newsletter Editor

Governor’s Budget for 2007-09: $10 M in Special Compensation for Faculty plus Domestic Partner Benefits; PROFS is lobbying for competitive faculty compensation and domestic partner benefits.

On February 13, Governor Jim Doyle released his 2007-09 state budget, including his plans for funding the UW. It increased funding for the UW System by 3.5% in the first year and 2.3% in the second year. The Governor’s initiatives include:

• $10 million for a special Recruitment and Retention fund for faculty. (This is in addition to the pay plan, which will come later.)
• Extension of domestic partner benefits to all state employees.
• Enabling legislation to allow all UW System faculty and staff to choose collective bargaining.
• $122 million for “costs to continue” to pay for salaries and benefits approved in the last budget.

Much of the attention on the UW budget has focused on the “Growth Agenda,” which will provide $34 million in the second year of the biennium for most of the UW campuses to add more students. The only funding for UW-Madison in the Growth Agenda is $3.1 million for a multi-campus nursing school initiative that includes Madison.

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