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State Building Commission rejects proposed $70 million UW-System budget reallocation
Summary
A proposal to reallocate $70,064,000 SEG REV across multiple UW projects—including funds shifted from UW–Eau Claire to UW–Madison and other campuses—failed on tied and split votes during the Dec. 18 State Building Commission meeting; additional background and prior authorizations were recorded in the minutes.
A proposal by the University of Wisconsin System to reallocate $70,064,000 in SEG REV among several campus projects failed at the State Building Commission's Dec. 18 meeting in Madison.
The reallocation package would have reduced the UW–Eau Claire Science/Health Science and related chiller work by $70,064,000 SEG REV and redistributed that SEG REV to increase budgets and authorize construction for projects including the UW–Whitewater Winther Hall/Heide Hall Entry Additions & Renovations, the UW–Madison New Engineering Building, and UW–Stout Heritage Hall Addition & Renovation, as well as releasing $25,000,000 to the 2023-25 All Agency Small Project allocation.
The record shows the request did not pass. The minutes state "Request failed 2-2-0 (Senator Ballweg, Senator Jacque voted No)" on an early vote and later record a 4-4-0 result: "Request failed 4-4-0 (Senator Felzkowski, Senator Jacque, Representative Swearingen and Representative Wittke voted No)." A subsequent motion to approve the request, moved by Representative Jill Billings and seconded by Barb Worcester, also failed.
The transcript includes detailed line items and prior authorizations: the UW–Eau Claire Science/Health Science Building had prior approvals and enumerations noted in 2019 and 2023 acts; the New Engineering Building at UW–Madison carries large construction estimates and gift/grant components that factored into the reallocation proposal. The minutes cite prior SBC releases of preliminary planning funds and enumerations in 2019, 2021 and 2023 legislative acts that form the fiscal and statutory context for the request.
Because the commission did not approve the reallocation, the existing project budgets and prior authorizations remain in place as recorded; the transcript records that additional small-project allocations and prior releases total tens of millions of dollars to date. The minutes note that the item was debated and that votes were recorded by name where applicable in the meeting record. The motion to approve ultimately failed, so no reallocation took effect from this meeting.
Next steps: the minutes indicate the Commission may revisit matters in future meetings and that the minutes are subject to ratification at the next State Building Commission meeting.
