MADISON, WI (WTAQ) – Remember those big surpluses that suddenly turned up at UW campuses two years ago?
Governor Scott Walker’s communications chief tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that campuses still have $1.3 billion in cash balances. Jocelyn Webster indicated it could be used to absorb the governor’s proposed two-year, $300 million cut in state support without having to slash the UW’s operating budgets.
System president Ray Cross tells the state’s largest news outlet that $1.3 billion in reserves is about right, as of the end of 2014 — but it’s not that easy to tap those funds, because large amounts have legal limits on how they can be used.
Therefore, Cross says it’s misleading to assume that so much of the UW reserves are available as an aggregate total at any point in time.
In the past, Cross and campus leaders said part of the reserves are restricted by federal law — and others are committed to future purchases.
Meanwhile, the balances have been going down. UW officials said their unrestricted balances fell by $151 million in the past year.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
