Gov. Walker Proposes Big Cuts to University of Wisconsin System, Big Tuition Hikes for Wisconsin Students and Big Payday for Milwaukee Bucks

MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker today announced he is calling for $300 million in budget cuts to the University of Wisconsin System and allowing unlimited tuition hikes beginning in 2017. The Governor also revealed he will be proposing a taxpayer subsidy of $220 million for a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks professional basketball team.

The following are the statements of One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross regarding Gov. Scott Walker’s announcements:

“Slashing public support for higher education and skyrocketing tuition has increasingly squeezed students and their families. It’s exactly how we’ve found ourselves as a nation with 40 million hard-working Americans who took on the responsibility to pay for their higher education being over $1.2 trillion in debt.

“In his first budget Gov. Walker signed into law a $250 million budget cut to the UW System and a double digit tuition hike that will have cost students in excess of $200 million over his first term.

“He’s certainly upped the ante as he runs for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination with an even bigger UW budget cut of $300 million and a bolder proposal for unlimited tuition hikes in the face of record levels of student loan debt in Wisconsin and across the country.

“Adding insult to injury, Gov. Walker chose this same day to announce his plan to give the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team $220 million from taxpayers to build a new arena for themselves.

“Gov. Walker may have named his newly formed Presidential fundraising committee ‘Our American Revival’ but based on his actions today to stick it to students and their families while giving handouts to professional sports teams you have to wonder whose revival he’s talking about.”