Governor Jim Doyle unveiled his 2005-07 biennial budget proposal on February 8, 2005, officially beginning Wisconsin’s state budget process. Governor Doyle’s spending plan renews the state’s two-thirds commitment to funding K-12 education and protects career and technical education.

The budget also contains Governor Doyle’s own version of the property tax freeze, one that he says “protects education, promotes economic development, and preserves vital services like police and firefighters.”

Rather than including the technical colleges in his freeze, Governor Doyle opts to leave in place the 1.5 mil rate cap. “Technical colleges account for a small percentage of property tax bills, and they already have limits on the amount their levies can increase,” Doyle said. “My plan requires them to continue to abide by those limits – without imposing new ones that could end up costing our workers and hurting the economy.”

WTCS Overview

The governor recommends a total of $180.8 million in each year of the biennium for the technical colleges. The governor does suggest some specific funding increases and decreases in the technical college portion of his spending blueprint. However, funding changes essentially balance themselves out and the overall funding level for both years of the biennium are only slightly higher than the $178.1 million provided to the technical colleges in 2004-05. The governor’s budget leaves total general state aid devoted to the districts unchanged, at $118.4 million.

General Purpose Revenue (GPR) – general tax dollars that the Legislature can use for any purpose – allocated to the technical colleges increases nominally from 2004-05 (base year) to 2005-06 (the first year of the new biennium). The transfer of an existing government program (see below) to the technical college balances out budget efficiency measures and budget reductions recommended by the governor. Overall, GPR increases from $140.4 million in 2004-05 to $141.1 million 2005-06, an increase of about 0.5%. Funding for 2006-07 (the second year of the biennium) would remain at 2005-06 levels.

Program Revenue (PR) – funds the Legislature must use for a specific program or activity – allocated to the technical colleges increases by approximately 5.6%, from $37.7 million in 2004-05 to $39.8 million in 2005-06. Under the proposed budget, PR funding for 2006-07 will remain at 2005-06 levels.

Specifics

The governor’s budget contains several specific proposals related – in whole or in part – to the WTCS. One of the most notable is new job training initiative intended to partner the Department of Commerce and the technical colleges with Wisconsin businesses that have specific training needs. The proposal allocates $2.5 million per year to the Department of Commerce, allowing it to award Training Assistance Grants to businesses that create significant number of new jobs. Businesses that agree to partner with the technical colleges will receive “funding preference”, a term that has yet to be defined.

The governor also recommends establishing Super Employment and Economic Development Zone (SPEEDZ) grants administered by the Department of Commerce. The $5 million (provided in 2006-07 alone) program would provide grants to businesses in areas where unemployment exceeds the state average by 150% or more. Businesses must also meet additional eligibility criteria, including a requirement that they pay family-supporting wages. Those meeting the requirements are eligible to receive grants to provide worker training, assist in capital financing, or engage in a host of other business development activities.

Governor Doyle also proposes transferring the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Program (WMEP) from the Department of Commerce to the technical college system and increasing the program’s budget. WMEP – a technical training and consulting service – would receive $1.5 million in each of the two years of the biennium, up from $850,000 per year in the 2003-05 biennium. The proposal would give the WTCS State Board more oversight over WMEP.

Additional resources are provided for the Wisconsin Higher Education Grant (WHEG) program, the state’s largest source of grant aid. The Higher Education Aids Board (HEAB), the agency that administers WHEG grants, receives an additional $250,000 in both 2005-06 and 2006-07. The additional resources are specifically for WTCS students.

A total of $1.1 million is provided to the UW System to begin implementing the recommendations of the Committee on Baccalaureate Expansion (COBE). The committee has developed a series of recommendations intended to increase residents’ access to higher education and smooth transferability between WTCS districts and UW institutions.

The budget contains revenue re-estimates, budget reductions and program transfers that serve to reduce total WTCS funding. For example, the governor recommends implementing a budget efficiency measure that would reduce total WTCS funding by $245,000. To accomplish this reduction, the governor asks the WTCS to eliminate five vacant positions at the system office.

A number of funding requests made by the WTCS State Board were not included in the governor’s budget. In early fall 2004, the WTCS State Board requested $34.5 million in additional revenue for the 2005-07 biennium to – among other things – increase general state aid, provide additional financial aid to minority students and create an manufacturing/new technology grant program. The bulk of these requests did not receive funding.

Conclusion

Given the current fiscal environment and the state’s $1.6 billion budget shortfall, the governor’s treatment of the WTCS is quite positive. Furthermore, the exclusion of the technical colleges from his tax freeze proposal and his recognition of the WTCS’s role in economic development are good signs.