The Wisconsin governor, Tony Evers, said on Wednesday in a newspaper report he will not sign the state budget if Republican lawmakers follow through on their plan to cut funding for the state university system’s diversity officers, escalating a bitter fight over dollars for the state campuses.
The assembly speaker, Robin Vos, told the Associated Press on Tuesday he wants to cut $32m from the UW system in the state’s 2023-25 budget, an amount he said was equal to what the system spends on diversity officers. He said during a news conference on Wednesday that diversity efforts have become liberals’ “new religion” and tax dollars should not be used to help them.
“For people on the left, [efforts to promote diversity have] become their new religion,” Vos said. “They no longer go to church on Sunday, but boy, are they trying to make sure everybody is evangelized on campus, that’s there only one acceptable viewpoint. That’s not what I think taxpayers should be funding.”
Evers, a Democrat and a former UW regent, tweeted on Tuesday that the cut would be “disastrous” for the UW system. He told reporters during a tour of a cheese manufacturer in Monroe on Wednesday that he would not sign the budget if Republicans follow through, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Cutting the university system when the state has a $7bn surplus is “irrational” and “ridiculous”, he said.
Evers’ spokesperson, Britt Cudaback, did not immediately return messages from the AP.
Vos appeared unfazed at a second news conference on Wednesday afternoon, saying he did not believe Evers would veto the entire budget over one issue. He said if Evers were to erase the budget, Republicans would begin work on a new spending plan in October and force Evers to explain to the state why his constituents have gone without new funding for months.
“[Assembly Republicans are] unanimous in saying that if the governor would make a mistake and try to pick one thing out of an $80bn budget, to say we have to spend money how he sees fit, that’s not going to work,” Vos said.
The conflict reflects a broader cultural battle playing out across the nation over college diversity initiatives. Republican lawmakers this year have proposed more than 30 bills in 12 states to limit diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education, an Associated Press analysis found in April.
A UW spokesperson, Mark Pitsch, has said salaries for current system employees tasked with working on diversity, equity and inclusion amount to roughly $15.6m annually. The UW system president, Jay Rothman, hired a new chief diversity officer with an annual salary of $225,000 who began work on Monday. He did not publicize the hiring at a UW board of regents meeting earlier this month.
Pitsch did not immediately respond to an email on Wednesday seeking comment on Evers’ veto pledge.
The legislature’s Republican-controlled finance committee is in the midst of rewriting Evers’ executive budget before forwarding it to the full assembly and senate for approval. If the spending plan passes both houses it would go next to Evers, who could sign it into law, use his partial veto powers to rewrite large portions of it or veto the entire thing.
UW regents requested an additional $435.6m over the two-year budget. Evers’ proposal called for giving the system about $305.9m in new money. The finance committee already rejected plans this month to build a new engineering building on the system’s flagship Madison campus; if the panel chops $32m from the system the regents would end up about $500m short of what they say they need.
That could lead to more tuition increases for students as the system tries to make up the shortfall. The regents in March approved hundreds of dollars in tuition, fees and room and board rate increases after Evers’ budget fell $130m short of their $435.6m target request.
There was no immediate response to an email sent on Wednesday morning seeking comment from the Associated Students of Madison, the student government body at UW-Madison.
It is unclear when the finance committee may consider UW system’s portion of the budget. The committee was scheduled to vote on it on Tuesday evening but ultimately chose to delay action indefinitely.
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