Government Relations

Legislative Update

June 18, 2007

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STATE UPDATE

Biennial Budget

UW System’s “Growth Agenda” went before the Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday, June 4.  After much debating behind the scenes, the committee adopted a fairly comprehensive omnibus motion that combined the Higher Educational Aids Board and UW System and contained the majority of UW System’s funding.  Separate party line votes were taken on relatively few issues. 

Ultimately, the Growth Agenda remained whole, and funding was nominally reduced. If you considered changes that occurred in the veteran tuition remission program, UW System arguably came out of this process fiscally ahead of the Governor’s budget. 

Equally important, the tone of debate was reasonable, rhetoric was minimal, and all members showed their desire to support higher education, even if not by the same means.      

As President Reilly said in his Regent address last week, “the state of UW’s budget is PROMISING.”

Please see the summary documents detailing the committee’s actions on the Growth Agenda here: JFC Actions on the Growth Agenda and Fiscal Analysis Post JFC

To review UW System’s budget as it moves through the legislative process, see this Budget Comparison Chart 

The budget is moving quickly in the Senate.  Members will begin caucusing early this week on the final package by the Senate Democrats.  It is still anticipated the vote will be the last week in June, as members will want this complete prior to their Fourth of July parades!

Budget Tools/Resources

Growth Agenda for Wisconsin –   This site has been updated with new printable fact sheets, and a list of Growth Agenda endorsements.

Biennial Budget Bulletin – UW System Summary of the 2007-09 Governor’s Budget

LFB Summary of Governor’s Budget

LFB Informational Paper on the UW System

History of Biennial Budgets 1997-2007 shows the timeline of the passage of budgets since 1997. 

State Legislation Update

Legislative Committee Activity

May 23 – The Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice held a public hearing on AB 282 (SB 159) relating to threatening a school official. Current statutes provide protections to public school and technical college officials, but appear silent on UW System officials. System will likely seek an amendment to include UW System equally in the statutes, and then ask the Regents to support the legislation, as amended.

June 4 -- Senator Glenn Grothman held the final meeting of his Legislative Council Special Committee on Affirmative Action. Material on the website is very detailed, and includes a minority report submitted by several of the members. View Meeting Materials.  In addition, President Reilly sent a letter to members of the Legislative Council committee requesting they do not support proposed legislation. Reilly Letter

June 11 -- The Speaker’s Task Force on Information Technology Failures held its first meeting to hear from representatives of state agencies that had recent failed IT projects.  UW System Associate Vice President for Learning and Information Technology, Ed Meachen,  provided testimony on behalf of the UW System on its  Payroll and Benefits System (APBS) project.  Meachen Testimony

Upcoming Legislative Activity

NEW June 20 – New Regent President Mark Bradley will tour the Capitol, meeting with key legislators.  Tentatively scheduled visits include Senators Decker, Harsdorf and Fitzgerald, and Representative Kreuser.

Legislation Introduced or Added Since Last Update

Rep. Ballweg/Lassa has introduced AB 389 which would eliminate the maximum award amounts for recipients of the Higher Education Aids Board’s (HEAB) Academic Excellence Higher Education Scholarship, which are awarded to certain high school students on the basis of high school grade-point average.  View additional sponsors and complete text.

Please note that UW System legislative bill positions that have been approved by the UW System Board of Regents are posted on the web.  View bill positions.

FEDERAL UPDATE

Last week, the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007 (H.R. 2669) was marked up in the House Education and Labor Committee.  The bill is the committee’s response to reconciliation instructions included in the FY08 congressional budget resolution and aims to provide about $20 billion more for student financial aid and $750 million in net deficit reduction over the next five years.  The legislation appears to impose significant new reporting requirements with respect to college costs.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is scheduled to mark up its version of the reconciliation measure on June 20, 2007.  Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act is expected to be marked up in the Senate on June 20th as well.

Pell Grant Provisions
  • Provides an additional $500 to the Pell Grant maximum award by year 2011-12;
  • Provides incremental mandatory funds for the Pell Grant, including $420 million in FY08 and increasing to $2.45 billion in FY14;
  • Increases the authorized Pell Grant maximum to $11,600 by 2012-13;
  • Allows for a year-round Pell Grant for students enrolled in courses for more than two semesters, three quarters, or the equivalent, in a given academic year (effective July 1, 2009);
  • Allows non-traditional students (part-time students and/or students enrolled in a certificate program of study) to receive Pell Grant awards year-round;

For an additional Pell Grant provision see the sixth bullet under the College Cost section. 

Other Student Aid Provisions of Interest
  • Provides $100 million in mandatory expenditures each year for five years to the Perkins Loan Program federal capital contributions (has not received funds since FY04);
  • Expands eligibility for the Academic Competitiveness Grant and SMART Grant programs to permanent resident aliens and part-time students;
  • Changes the eligibility requirement for the Academic Competitiveness and SMART Grant programs to clarify that students are eligible if they are enrolled in a program of undergraduate education as part of a secondary school program of study.
Student Loan Provisions
  • Increases the third and subsequent year Stafford Loan limit from $5,500 to $7,500;
  • Increases the aggregate Stafford Loan limit from $23,000 to $30,500;
  • Provides loan forgiveness (not more than $5,000) for graduates employed in areas of national need, national service, or the public sector, to be distributed over a five-year period. 
College Cost Provisions
  • Authorizes a new "higher education price index," to be developed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The index would be "a statistical measure of change over time in the prices of a fixed market basket of goods and services purchased by colleges and universities through educational and general expenditures (excluding expenditures for research)."
  • Requires colleges and universities to report to the Department of Education (DOE) college affordability information, including sticker price and net tuition price for the three most recent academic years and the percentage change as calculated by the new higher education price index;
  • Requires an institution to provide the DOE with a report if its sticker price percentage increase exceeds twice the higher education price index rate over a three-year period of time.  The report, to be published on the College Opportunity On-Line (COOL) website, must include a description of the factors contributing to the increase and a description of agencies or entities that participate in tuition and fee decisions if the determination of tuition and fees is not within the exclusive control of the institution (such as public institutions in which a state legislature may set tuition price).
  • Creates a new "affordability alert status" to be imposed by the Secretary on institutions that exceed the higher education price index and fail to limit any subsequent increase in sticker price to equal to or below two times the rate of change in the higher education price index for two consecutive academic years. Some exemptions would be permitted;
  • Requires institutions whose percentage increase in net tuition price exceeds the percentage increase in the higher education price index to submit to the DOE within six months a "detailed report on the exact causes for the net tuition price increase that outlines revenues and expenditures . . . and cost containment strategies to lower net tuition prices."
  • Creates new incentives and rewards for institutions whose annual net tuition price increase is equal to or less than the percentage change in the higher education price index in a given academic year or that guarantee tuition price for four years (the bill notes specific conditions).  Pell Grant recipients at such institutions would receive a 25-percent increase in their award in the next award year.
  • Requires states to sustain their support of public colleges and universities at an amount equal to the preceding five-year average or risk losing all Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership funds. The Secretary may waive the requirement due to uncontrollable circumstances, such as a natural disaster or unforeseen decline in financial resources.
  • Requires the DOE to redesign its COOL website to provide more useful and comparative information and to make it more user-friendly.
  • Requires the DOE to continue to redesign the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or  IPEDS, to include additional data that improves the usefulness and timeliness of available information.
  • Requires the DOE to publish on the COOL website each academic year a College Consumer Profile on each institution of higher education participating in federal student aid programs, with each profile to include: 
  1. an institution's tuition, fees, room and board;
  2. average amount of financial aid broken out by type and source;
  3. the number of students receiving financial aid;
  4. instructional expenditures per full-time equivalent student;
  5. number of full-time and part-time students and percentage of resident and non-resident students;
  6. faculty-to-student ratios;
  7. number and percentage of faculty who are part-time and full-time;
  8. completion and graduation rates;
  9. a link to an institution's information on mission, accreditation, student services, transfer of credit policies, and placement rates and other measures of success in preparing students for entry or advancement in the workforce;
  10. college affordability information, including sticker price and net tuition price for the three most recent academic years and the percentage change as calculated by the new higher education price index; and
  11. "any additional information the Secretary may require."

The week of June 4, the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations subcommittee, which 7th District Congressman David Obey chairs, marked up its FY08 bill.  The subcommittee had to make some tough choices, but priority programs, especially for student aid, faired very well.  We are delighted that the maximum Pell Grant will increase from $4,310 to $4,700, and the appropriators declined to implement the administration’s proposal to eliminate the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership program, and Perkins Loan programs.  Funding for NIH is more modest; the $750 million increase is just 2 percent above last year’s level.

Another item of good news is that the bill included language that Chairman Obey offered that would effectively block the Department of Education’s efforts to push through an onerous new set of regulations governing accreditation.  The UW System Board of Regents voted to work with the Association of Governing Boards to communicate their concerns about the DOE’s accreditation push.  The appropriations measure still needs the approval of the full Committee on Appropriations which has stalled due to debate over earmarks.  Please see President Reilly's Letter sent to Chairman Obey thanking him for expanding federal financial aid and opportunities for access.  The Senate is expected to mark up its bill on June 19, with full committee action scheduled for June 21.   

UPCOMING EVENTS     

July  
12-13 UW System Board of Regents Meeting - In Madison
   

UW System News

The President’s 2007 Commission on University Security was created last month following the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech.  President Reilly asked the commission to conduct an analysis of campus security within the UW System. Commission members represent a variety of safety, administrative and student services units. The Commission is separate from a task force that Governor Doyle has created to examine safety at all of Wisconsin’s public and private universities, but the two working groups are expected to coordinate some efforts.  A report is expected by June 30 for presentation to the Board of Regents at its July meeting.  For more information, please contact Grant Huber.

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