A provision in the spending package
would have given $50 million in
state aid to Wisconsin technical
colleges, the aim being to
reduce the burden on local property
taxes.
Technical colleges across the state
serve 300,000 students on
16 campuses.
Leaders of the system report being
underfunded by the state and didn't
like the provision as it would
replace locally controlled funding
with state controlled aid.
Wisconsin Technical College System
President, Layla Merrifield,
joins us with more.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you.
So describe to us how
getting $50 million from the
state is not a good thing in
your mind.
Technical colleges are local
units of government and we have
always been a state and local
partnership.
So we think both local
funding and state funding are both
important.
However, we would like to hang on to
the remaining property tax levy that
we have access to.
It has been capped by the
legislature so it's not rising.
We are not the cause of rising
property taxes here in Wisconsin.
We think that aid efforts to
relieve property taxes should
probably go where the issues
are. That being...
That being other local units of
government and certainly we know
that we have k-12 funding issues
in in Wisconsin that probably need
to be
So in the last budget you sought
additional state funding, but it
came in $36 million,
I think, less than you requested.
Is that an example of the
uncertainty kind of of state aid?
But that's exactly it.
We have not competed very well
in recent state budgets for
lawmakers' attention and their
priorities.
And because of that, we have come to
really think about property taxes as
ballast in our
budget. It's a relatively small
portion, maybe about 28 percent of
our overall budget, but it's an
important portion that stabilizes
our budgets and keeps things
reliable, flexible, and
allows us to really be responsive
when local communities come to us
for help.
When you looked at the numbers,
where would it have left the system
if the 50 million in state aid
offset would have passed?
It would have been about 10% of our
overall levy that went away,
but bear in mind that
our property taxes in
the technical college system are
only around 3.5%
of the total property tax burden
here in Wisconsin.
So it's just not very much money,
but it's a big deal to us to have
flexible dollars that we can
direct where communities are
asking for help.
Were you surprised about this
provision?
Surprised, no.
This has been an ongoing
conversation in Wisconsin.
It's certainly something that we
talk with our policy makers often
about and try to make the
case that local funding is
important for our system and that
community and technical colleges
continue to
make decisions in
the towns and counties where they
are most affected and
that we're able to respond when,
again, there's maybe
a factory that closes and
a lot of Wisconsinites are laid off.
Or even when we have shortages of
firefighters and EMTs, things like
that, which we're experiencing right
now in our rural areas.
Did it hurt you to think that
potentially state lawmakers and
the governor didn't appreciate
what you're talking about there?
Well, I think it's an ongoing
conversation.
They are certainly familiar with my
side of things, and they have
their own points of view.
But we'll get to a compromise
position eventually, I'm sure.
What challenges do state colleges
have right now?
Waiting lists and a lack of
resources are the main things that
are on my mind and that keep me up
at night.
We have thousands of students who
are waiting to get into high demand,
high paying fields.
And on the other side of that
equation, we have employers who are
looking for our graduates.
So, we would like to put those two
people together and make sure
that we can move more
Wisconsin students toward those
careers and pathways that
are so important to maintaining,
for example, our manufacturing
industry in this state, our
healthcare industry in the state,
and really maintaining Wisconsin's
quality of life.
What are those high-demand fields?
There are many right now.
Dental hygiene is one.
We have long waiting lists, and we
are hoping to continue to grow
cohorts there. We recently saw.
A one-time funding infusion for that
particular field, but we need
ongoing revenue to make that happen.
We are also seeing ongoing demand
from manufacturers, again,
CNC machinists, tool and die,
all sorts of advanced manufacturing
fields that continue
to be in demand. We are now seeing
more demand from manufactures to
integrate AI into their automated
processes.
So we know that we need to invest
there, and we are seeking the
resources to do that.
All right, very quickly.
In the next state budget cycle,
do you have concerns that they'll
try to move more funding for
tech colleges over to state?
Well, again, every state budget is
different and in some ways,
some of those conversations continue
to rise up, so we will
continue to engage with our policy
makers and make sure that we do
what's best for Wisconsin.
Alright, Leila Merrifield, thanks
very much.
Room with, we're off, but with
Governor Evers saying, you
can't do this.