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Wisconsin Ag News Headlines
Lawmakers Glad to See JFC Preserve Some UW Funding
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 06/03/2015

Two rural GOP Assembly representatives are praising the legislature's budget-writing committee for reducing the level of cuts Governor Scott Walker first proposed for the University of Wisconsin and its Cooperative Extension program. Rep. Ed Brooks of Reedsburg, a member of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, and Romaine Quinn from Rice Lake, thanked members of the Joint Finance Committee for passing a budget motion that proposed a $250 million reduction to the UW. That's $50 million less than the governor's $300 million spending cut.

Actual funding to the various departments of the University would be distributed by the UW Board of Regents.

"I am very happy that the Joint Finance Committee inserted this provision in the budget," said Rep. Quinn. "Clearly, the intent is to mitigate cuts on Wisconsin's two year campuses and the UW-Extension, and I trust that the UW Board of Regents will keep that in mind."

Last month, many speculated that the proposed cuts in the UW system could mean a drastic reduction in the number of local county agents that work for the UW-Extension program. That could affect the jobs of agriculture and 4-H agents by 65 and 80 positions at the county level.

Extension has an annual budget of about $220 million, with some of that money coming from other sources like the federal government, county governments and tribal nations, and grants.

Meanwhile, the JFC also planned to approve continuing a tuition freeze for two more years and do away with Walker's proposal to give UW more independence from state laws and oversight.


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