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PROFS Successes in the Last Biennium

During the recent debate over the 2007-2009 state budget, PROFS’ lobbying helped to:

  • Defeat the requirement that state employees, including faculty, pay 5% toward the Wisconsin Retirement System (which would have been an effective pay cut of 5%!).
  • Defeat the mandate that state employees, including faculty, pay a minimum of 10% of the total cost of health care (another effective pay cut because employees currently pay an average of 6%).
  • Stop the reduction in sick leave for all new state employees, including faculty, to just six days per year.
  • Stop mean-spirited attempts to cut funding for the Law School, the Havens Center, Public Radio/TV, the UW Extension School for Workers, and administrative positions.
  • Preserve $159 million in new funding for the UW System for “costs-to-continue,” including previously-approved pay plans and utility costs.
  • Save $10 million in the Retention of High Demand Faculty Fund, a majority of which is going to UW-Madison.

PROFS' lobbying stopped legislative efforts to micromanage the University by defeating bills to limit the sabbatical program and to require faculty outside-related income to be posted on the web.

PROFS led the campaign in opposition to the provision in the 2005-2007 state budget that would have required faculty to pay 1.5% of their salaries toward their retirement contribution. The campaign was successful, as Governor Doyle vetoed the provision when he signed the budget into law.

PROFS won a major victory in a previous legislative session with approval of university payment of the first six months of health insurance for new faculty and also a doubling of the credit for the sick leave conversion program.

PROFS lobbied for many years to obtain the improvements to the Wisconsin Retirement System included in ACT II and approved by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in June, 2001.  For a summary of ACT II changes to the Wisconsin Retirement System, see Court Upholds Pension Law.

PROFS worked to obtain the 5.2% pay plan for the 1999-2000 biennium, which along with the competitive compensation in the Madison Initiative, brought faculty salaries to within 0.5% of the median of peer schools by May 2001.

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