MADISON, Wis. – Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch today asked legislative leaders to make changes to Governor Walker’s proposed 2013-2015 biennial state budget, including adding a two-year tuition freeze for all University of Wisconsin System schools.

“We share the Governor’s interest in keeping college affordable and tuition low,” said UW System President Kevin P. Reilly.  “While UW tuition is already lower than many peer colleges and universities, a two-year tuition freeze will send the right message to Wisconsin students and families.”

UW institutions will reallocate $42 million from other resources to cover the cost of the proposed tuition freeze.

In addition, Sec. Huebsch’s letter calls for $65.7 million in reductions to taxpayer support for the UW System. The Governor recommended that the Board of Regents reallocate about $28 million in one-time funding to cover new economic development incentive grants, startup funding for new UW Flex Option degrees, and two initiatives at UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health.

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I have appreciated the discussion I have heard on campus regarding the fund balances carried by University of Wisconsin System schools. As I wrote in the April 25 email on this subject, the funds in these accounts are used to help UW–Madison succeed in its academic and research missions.

The fund balances are reported publicly each year in the state’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and the UW System’s Annual Financial Report. These reports present a snapshot of the balances at a specific time.

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The briefing sessions begin Tuesday and can be viewed on WisconsinEye.

The non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau’s analysis of the governor’s proposed UW System budget can be viewed here.

Please read a message from state Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch to all state employees about the launch of the website.

The website stems from 2011 Wisconsin Act 32, s.16.413 of the Wisconsin Statues, which requires the DOA to create a searchable website with information about all state agency expenditures in excess of $100. The database will eventually include all state and UW salaries and fringe benefits, grants paid by state agencies, and all contract payments made by any agency or UW institutions. For ease of administration, all expenditures, regardless of amount, will be included.

Working with state agencies and the UW System, DOA has developed a plan to launch OpenBook in three phases.

Phase 1, which will launch soon, will include operating expenses such as travel payments, vendor payments, and purchasing card (PCard) detail.

In order to ensure a smooth roll out of expenditure data, DOA determined that Phase 1 will only involve agencies that use the State’s general ledger system. Entities with separate general ledger systems, including UW System institutions, will upload more data later. Capital expenditures made by the DOA on behalf of UW institutions are recorded in the State’s general ledger system, so they will be published in the first rollout of Phase 1.

Phase 2, to be launched later, will include employee salary and fringe benefit expenditures.

Phase 3 will include grants, capital projects, and VendorNet contracts. Launch dates for Phases 2 and 3 have not been announced.

We fully expect this project to raise many questions. Here are a few that we can anticipate and answer now:

Q: Will individual employees be listed, if they receive payments for travel expenses or other reimbursable expenses? Yes. Those payments will be included and the employee will be listed as the “vendor” in this case.

Q: Will private information be released? In accordance with the statutes, DOA’s database will exclude aids, local assistance, and transfers. UW System does not maintain Social Security Numbers in our payment data, so that will not be provided. DOA will take steps to redact other personal information, but individual agencies are responsible for requesting specific exemptions. For example, UW System will exclude payments to people who receive stipends for participating in scientific research studies. When Phase 2 is launched, details about individual benefit elections, such as health insurance, will not be provided.

Q: Will all UW data be available in Phase 1? Some UW data will be published as part of Phase 1. This is a major undertaking for DOA, and the process of consolidating financial data from multiple systems is very complex. Because UW System uses a different general ledger system, we will be given reporting instructions later. We will comply with the law to provide this level of transparency.

Q: Who will people contact for more information? Each entry in the OpenBook database will feature a “contact” button where people can request more detail. UW System is working with DOA to provide the appropriate contact information for UW entries.

This spring, the State plans to launch its expenditure disclosure website called OpenBook Wisconsin. This website is part of Governor Walker’s on-going effort to make state government more transparent for the citizens of Wisconsin.

OpenBook Wisconsin will give citizens easy access to State of Wisconsin expenditures, or the amount of money we spend to do business. It includes the payments we have made for purchasing goods or services, and we currently include data about the expenditures made by state government from fiscal year 2008 through the most current month. You will be able to search the website database by state agency, expense (expenditure) category and vendor by fiscal year.

Employee salary and fringe benefit data will not be included in this first phase, although employee names may appear in the initial launch if they have received reimbursement for travel or other work expenses. Please see below for more details.

Future Phases

To comply with state law, we will be adding employee salary and fringe payments data for the State, University of Wisconsin, Legislature and the courts in the coming months. We will also be adding the grants that have been awarded, as well as the contracts that our state agencies have with vendors.

• Employee salary and fringe benefits: salary information is public under state law. The website will include employees on central payroll including name, agency, class, gross pay, and year to date gross pay. Fringe benefits data will be provided in total, and not listed by individual employees to protect your confidentiality in your health care plan.
• Grants made or contracts entered into: will include capital projects by fiscal year, as well as VendorNet contracts by fiscal year.

Employee Information

We are taking precautions to protect sensitive employee information. The OpenBook Wisconsin website will not post the social security number, home address or home telephone number of any employee. Transactions will show the employee’s agency.

Your safety is our priority while we meet our legal obligations to provide public information under state law. While there are very limited reasons which justify the redaction of an employee name under the law, we are taking efforts to redact names that would potentially jeopardize an employee’s safety (for example: an undercover agent or domestic abuse victim).

If you have concerns that your safety may be jeopardized by including your name on the website, please contact your Human Resources Director. Your agency will work with legal counsel to determine if your name should be redacted. 

We are excited about this opportunity to make state government more transparent for the citizens of Wisconsin.

Thank you,

Mike Huebsch

Secretary

Wisconsin State Journal: University, tech college officials satisfied with higher education funding

WisPolitics: Legislative leaders’ budget address reaction

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Universities overtake prisons in Gov. Walker’s budget

Associated Press: Walker calls for income tax cut in two-year budget

Dept. of Administration: Summary of UW System budget

The Daily Cardinal: Proposed 2013-’15 state budget

Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal includes many provisions that affect the University of Wisconsin–Madison, including:

· $89 million in new funding to the UW System to preserve and expand access and quality. This funding would come in the form of a “block grant” that provides flexibility in how the funding is used.

· $20 million in new funding for an Incentive Grant program for new initiatives that will boost the UW System’s workforce development efforts

· $3.75 million for the UW Carbone Cancer Center to support the creation of the Wisconsin Oncology Network of Imaging Excellence

· $3 million for School of Medicine and Public Health programs geared toward increasing the number of physicians practicing in rural areas and inner city areas of the state.

For further budget details, read the Budget in Brief.

“This is the best budget we have seen in many cycles,” Ward said.

“While the university will have to confront many challenges, that task becomes much more manageable when we are not heading into the future with a readymade deficit,” Ward said. “I applaud the governor for recognizing the need to re-establish the state’s partnership in funding quality higher education in Wisconsin.”

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