Associated Press: UW System’s budget ‘cut a break’ by Walker

The AP is reporting today (Friday) that a $66 million cut to the University of Wisconsin System’s budget will not be made permanent, Gov. Scott Walker said in a letter to state agencies. The university is one of a handful of agencies Walker has exempted from permanent cuts going into the next two-year budget cycle. While all state agencies had been advised that spending increases are unlikely, and that they should hold the line in their two-year budget proposals due Sept. 17, most other agencies had been told that cuts imposed earlier this year, known as lapses, would be made permanent going into the next budget cycle. (Along with $250 million in cuts in the current budget, the UW was ordered to absorb an additional $66 in lapses, a disproportionate amount of the $174 million to be recovered statewide.) Along with the UW, other agencies for whom this year’s lapses won’t be made permanent are the Department of Justice, the Department of Children and Family Services, the Department of Workforce Development and the Office of State Employment Relations. See the full report including reaction from UW System.