Wisconsin Republican lawmakers reject funding for UW-Madison engineering building

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GOP lawmakers rejected funding Thursday for the University of Wisconsin's top priority, the replacement of an engineering building on its flagship Madison campus, approving allocations for about 60% of the state government and UW projects sought by Gov. Tony Evers.

The Republican-controlled budget committee voted along party lines to fund nearly $2.4 billion in building projects statewide, down from the $3.8 billion Evers had asked for. Republicans called that an unrealistically high request. The cuts for building projects are similar to what Republicans did in each of the Democrat's previous two state budget proposals.

Projects on UW campuses took the biggest hit. The Joint Finance Committee approved roughly half of the $1.8 billion Evers wanted for UW.

Democratic Sen. Kelda Roys, whose district includes the UW-Madison campus, blamed Republicans for cutting projects there because Madison is a Democratic stronghold.

"It is a terrible economic decision," she said. "It makes no economic sense. It only makes sense of you think of it as political retribution."

Not included was UW's top priority: $197 million Evers requested to demolish and build a new College of Engineering building on the Madison campus. Another $150 million for the project was to come from gifts and grants.

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Roys said about $110 million has already been raised, but those donors may back out if the state doesn't fund the rest.

The engineering building was the single largest item requested for the flagship campus, with UW leaders saying a state-of-the-art facility would help attract and