June 2, 2015
E-mail from Bob Hetzel, Vice Chancellor for Administration & Finance
Dear JPB and Budget Council Colleagues,
I wanted to provide you with a brief update on the status of the 15-17 biennial budget. Attached
you’ll find the Omnibus Motion and summary of the actions approved by the Joint Finance
Committee (JFC) regarding the UW System budget for the 15-17 biennium. The JFC has
recommended reducing the $150M base cut to UW System by $25M ($300M and $50M biennial
amounts) and that the $25M reduction be distributed to the institutions most impacted by the
GPR base reduction. UW System is continuing to analyze the JFC budget proposal and will be
providing the campuses with updated information as more details are learned about the fiscal
impact of the budget.
At this point, no decisions have been made by Board of Regents or UW System about the
allocation of the $25M budget restoration. However, in addition to the $25M offset proposed by
the Legislature, UW System is considering providing institutions with $20M in one-time funding
from the UW Systemwide fund balance in FY16 to assist with budget reductions with an
additional $10M to be distributed in FY17. UW System Administration staff have developed a
draft model for providing assistance to those campuses with the greatest need and I’ve attached
the proposed guidelines that are being considered for this process.
The 15-17 state budget process will continue over the next several weeks as the JFC completes
its work in finalizing the biennial budget followed by voting in both the Senate and Assembly
with a final review by the Governor. We’ll be providing the UW-L campus community with more
information once the final 15-17 state budget is approved and will also be reconvening the
Budget Council to discuss the impact to UW-L as well as the next steps in our campus planning
process to manage the state budget cut. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the
15-17 biennial budget, please feel free to let me know.
Thank you,
Bob
______________________________________
Bob Hetzel
Vice Chancellor for Administration & Finance
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
233 Graff Main Hall
1725 State Street
La Crosse, WI 54601
Office: 608.785.6491
Cell: 608.738.6636