Even WisGOPs now admit that we have to pay for buildings at UW, elsewhere

You may remember back in March when Republicans on the State’s Building Commission decided not to formally approve of any of Governor Evers’ proposed building projects, claiming the $2.5 billion price tag for the projects was too much. This meant that each individual project would be taken up by the Joint Finance Committee at a later time.

Last week, that time came. And what resulted was…most of the projects were approved anyway. And that was especially true for the University of Wisconsin System, which were a sizable amount of those projects.

The projects approved Tuesday evening include $1.03 billion in spending for the UW System. The governor’s proposal called for $1.07 billion.

The system has pushed for that funding in recent weeks, citing the number of aging facilities at campuses across the state.

Approved UW System projects include $130 million for a new chemistry building at UW-Milwaukee, $128 million for additions and renovations to the veterinary medicine school at UW-Madison, and $109 million for a health science building at UW-Eau Claire.

Granted, it is worth noting that a majority of the dollars for these UW projects would be paid for by user fees and donations vs tax dollars. But still, only two proposed UW projects were rejected from the list Evers proposed for the UW with his budget back in March – an $83.0 million tax-funded add-on to UW-La Crosse’s science center, and a $15.25 million project to upgrade two La Crosse dorms that future students would have paid for.

In addition, Joint Finance took out $90 million for “All Agency” projects (which are small projects and/or fix-ups that crop up for all departments over a course of 2 years), and directed it to specific maintenance projects at the UW. So this should stem the backlog and deterioration of buildings that happened throughout the Age of Fitzwalkerstan, and is another indication that GOPs recognized in this budget that Evers and Dems were winning the argument that continuing the Walker Way wasn’t working.

One of the few items that was cut from Evers' proposed Capital budget involved earmarks for the Alliant Energy Center in Madison ($30 million in state money), for a new tourism center for Experience Green Bay ($2 million), and a redevelopment project in Wisconsin Rapids ($3 million). However, much of that was replaced by this initiative, which was part of the mega-motion passed through JFC for building projects.

Non-State Local Project Grant Program. Provide $25,000,000 of general fund supported borrowing for a grant program to assist facility construction of non-state organizations. Require municipalities where the facility would be located to apply for funding under this program on behalf of the organizations requesting funds under this program. Specify that the state would provide no more than $5,000,000 of the total cost of a non-state, local project. Require the organization to provide a 50% or greater match for the project before initial review by the Building Commission. Specify that the Commission may require appropriate guarantees for this matter. Require the Building Commission to select grant recipients and amounts. Specify that the Building Commission would include a finding of public purpose before awarding funding for a project.

So that's a $25 million pot of money that can be used for the projects in GB or Rapids, as well as other locally-based items that might need state help. There also is $15 million to be used to set up a mental health facility in northern Wisconsin, as part of a bill passed last year which would change up how the state does juvenile Corrections (more on that mess at a later date).

So despite a lot of noise from WisGOPs a few months ago, it looks like most of the building projects Governor Evers wants will eventually be given the go-ahead. Which is yet another admission that this state has fallen behind in the 2010s in its infrastructure and its services, and it's become a noticeable pattern with this budget.