State committee slashes Doyle financial aid plan

The state Joint Committee on Finance Wednesday voted to slash Gov. Jim Doyle's proposal to increase financial aid for UW students.

The original plan, which took $25 million from UW school auxiliary accounts, provided that amount in new aid to students from households making less than $60,000.

Auxiliary accounts are savings accumulated at each UW school, funded by student fees, and usually pay for routine maintenance.

The decision by Joint Finance slashes Doyle's proposed increase by $20 million and reduces the auxiliary transfer by $8.75 million, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The move also increases funding for Wisconsin Technical College System by more than $5 million. Democrat lawmakers on the committee cited an increasing demand for technical colleges as the reason for the new funding, which Doyle's budget had reduced.

Doyle's auxiliary transfer proposal would have taken $5.3 million from UW-La Crosse's auxiliary funds, nearly 21 percent of the total package.

Under the new plan, that transfer will be $3.4 million, a decrease of 35%. In a campus-wide email, Chancellor Joe Gow said, "This is a critical difference because being able to hold on to more of our reserve funds will enable us to avoid cutting back so severely."

The Joint Finance decision will not be finalized until the budget as a whole is approved by the legislature.

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