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State support for the UW System now makes up less than a quarter of the system’s total spending, according to a new report from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. Decades ago, state dollars funded almost half of the university system’s needs, but today, the colleges are far more dependent on tuition and fees paid by students. Lawmakers are considering Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to split off UW-Madison as a public authority.

UW-Madison’s Bascom Hall (photo by UW)

In 2010, state tax dollars covered only 24 percent of the UW System’s budget, down from about 34 percent in 2000 and 46 percent in 1980, according to WisTax.

The report says higher education in the state has suffered a “disproportionate share” of budget reductions in recent decades to the benefit of K-12 schools and the state’s Medicaid programs. This state is not alone, however, in handing big cuts to public universities: Most states have made similar reductions in recent years, according to WisTax.

It notes that Wisconsin’s corrections system now takes up a larger share of the state’s general fund (8.4 percent) than the UW System (8 percent).

Walker’s proposed 2011-13 budget would further reduce state support for the UW System, cutting it some $250 million. It would also spin off UW-Madison, which would bear about half of the funding cut, as a public authority governed by its own board. The existing Board of Regents, which oversees the UW System, has opposed the split and is proposing instead to grant greater autonomy to all of the system’s universities.

“Can the UW System be governed today the same way it was when state taxes provided over half of the system’s revenues?” asks the WisTax report. Good question, but it doesn’t provide an answer.

But it notes, “Lagging state support has meant students are picking up an increasing share of their education costs.” That share, supplied via tuition and fees, has risen from just 25 percent in 1980 to 60 percent by 2010.

The autonomy proposed by Walker (with the support of UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin) and the Board of Regents would grant the universities greater authority to set tuition, manage building projects and enter into new purchasing agreements. Many of the existing connections between the schools, the state Legislature and the state Department of Administration would be severed.

The schools would also have greater autonomy to set faculty pay. Supporters say administrators could use this power to attract high-caliber professors and researchers.

Pay for professors and assistant professors at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee is lower than what’s offered at similar schools nationally, according to the report.

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