Governor Jim Doyle signed the 2005-07 Wisconsin state budget on July 25, using his veto pen to improve two important provisions affecting the technical colleges.

Central to the 2005-07 budget Governor Doyle signed into law is a two-year property tax freeze. Unlike the Legislature’s plan, which would have limited technical colleges to a 2.6% property tax levy increase, the freeze Governor Doyle signed exempts technical colleges.

“The Legislature fails to recognize the importance of the Wisconsin Technical College System to help Wisconsin’s economy grow,” wrote Governor Doyle in his veto message. “Wisconsin’s technical colleges have had levy restraints in place for longer than any other unit of local government…To risk Wisconsin’s economic future by restraining resources available to the technical colleges even further is not a risk worth taking.”

Governor Doyle also re-worked the $2 million Jobs Advantage Training Program. As approved in the Legislature’s budget, the Jobs Advantage plan called for the WTCS State Board to make a large number of relatively small grants to state businesses that meet certain criteria.

Governor Doyle reshaped the program, instead requiring that grants be directed from the WTCS State Board to technical college districts to be used for skills training or other educational needs of Wisconsin businesses.

In addition the Governor:

• Maintained the Legislature’s 6 percent increase in funding for the Wisconsin Higher Education Grant program for WTCS students (WHEG-WTCS). The WHEG-WTCS is the state’s larges need-based financial aid program for WTCS students.

• Vetoed the Legislature’s plan to merge UW-Milwaukee and UW-Waukesha, but encouraged the UW Board of Regents to examine the issue.

• Vetoed the creation of a higher education task force created by the Legislature to study UW and WTCS issues.

• Maintained $500,000 in funding for implementation of strategies developed by the UW/WTCS Committee on Baccalaureate Expansion.

• Maintained the Legislature’s $2 million cut in WTCS funding.

The final budget boosts K-12 school funding by $861 million, which is $404 million more than the Legislature provided for public education in its version of the budget bill.

The Legislature's budget would have resulted in disastrous cuts to education by limiting school funding increases to 1% and rolling back the per pupil adjustment under revenue controls to $120 in 2005-06 and $100 in 2006-07. Governor Doyle restored with a line-item veto the per pupil adjustment to $248 in 2005-06 and $252 in 2006-07.