GOP nixes reallocation of UW building funds

Republicans on the state building commission shot down last week a bid by the Evers administration to redistribute tens of millions of dollars in University of Wisconsin building funds between projects, prompting Gov. Tony Evers to claim the GOP was yanking the rug from under the UW System and Republicans to counter that the governor was pulling an underhanded bait and switch.

Specifically, the GOP denied Evers’s attempt to reallocate more than $70 million from the UW’s Science/Health Science Building and lower campus chiller and cooling tower replacement projects at UW-Eau Claire to an array of other projects, including a planned new engineering building at UW-Madison. The governor claimed the former projects were well underway and under-budget.

Evers wanted to give the surplus to other projects he said the building commission had already approved, including $10.5 million for the Winther and Heide Hall projects at UW-Whitewater, $5.4 million for Heritage Hall at UW-Stout, and $29 million for the new engineering building, the latter of which Evers said had already endured months of partisan delays.

Finally, the governor stated, $25 million of the $70 million would have been reallocated for several other small projects across the system to address the repair and maintenance of university facilities.

“I am deeply disappointed that Republican lawmakers are once again pulling the rug out from under UW in the eleventh hour and putting politics ahead of doing what’s best for our kids, our workforce and economy, and our state,” Evers said. “We have to make sure our UW System remains the gem of our state and has the means and resources they need to compete — our students, workforce and employers, and the future of our communities and state depend upon it. We will, again, bring these projects to the state building commission in the New Year, and I urge Republican lawmakers to approve them.”

Republican pushback

Republicans on the committee pushed back against the governor’s positioning, saying the administration lacked transparency, had kept the costs of the Eau Claire projects secret, and then suddenly expanded the size and scope of the UW-engineering building plans.

Northwoods Republican Rep. Rob Swearingen of Rhinelander said he especially had serious concerns about the UW System’s handling of the engineering building project. Swearingen said there had been significant changes in its scope, and, while the building commission had in fact authorized an engineering building project, he said the project now presented for approval was substantially more expensive than the earlier version the commission authorized.

“Projects like the engineering building have the potential to expand opportunities and drive innovation, but this should be achieved through a transparent and accountable process that respects the Legislature’s role and protects the taxpayers,” Swearingen said.

Another Republican member of the commission, state Rep. Bob Wittke (R-Racine), said he was alarmed to learn that, after years of assurances that the engineering building project was ready to move forward, it remained in flux, with the scope and size continuing to grow. Originally authorized to serve 1,000 new students, Wittke observed that the UW System now claimed that an additional story and expanded design were necessary to meet the same goal.

And nobody told building commission members until just before the vote, the lawmaker said.

“I have advocated for the engineering building, it is important to UW-Madison, but the scope of this project has drastically changed and we were not made aware of the changes until it was time for the vote,” he said.

Swearingen and Wittke also criticized Evers for delaying other projects that required modest adjustments for simple cost overruns and, instead of allowing those projects to move forward, tied them to the controversial changes in the engineering building project.

“It’s a shame that the neglect of the Evers administration has led to the delay of these projects,” Swearingen said. “I hope as we move forward, DOA [Department of Administration] and the UW system will be more transparent.”

Bait and switch

A third member of the building commission, Sen. Andre Jacqué (R-De Pere), called the change a “bait and switch” that amounted to a breach of public trust.

“I am deeply concerned about the governor’s omnibus UW spending proposal before the building commission today, and am pleased that my Republican colleagues on the commission joined me in rejecting it,” Jacqué said. “I am floored that bids for the UW-Eau Claire project came back more than $70 million — more than 20 percent — below what was expected all the way back in March of this year and we didn’t hear a peep about it from DOA until last week.”

Jacqué said the DOA and the UW had apparently been working for months on plans to re-spend the money, but no one in the legislature was consulted.  

“Many of my colleagues expressed alarm about this earlier this week as well,” he said. “And I’m even more stunned that we are now immediately being asked to spend all of this cash right away on a Christmas tree of items without that discussion with the legislature that appropriated the funds in the first place, in order to keep that money from potentially being saved up or returned to the taxpayers.”

The adage about not leaving money lying around the Capitol or politicians will spend it was certainly well-earned, Jacqué said, adding that passing Evers’s motion would only have added to that reputation.

“I asked fiscal bureau, building commission staff, and the UW each to provide me with a list of projects that had been bid under expected cost to that extent by either percentage or total amount,” he said. “The four projects that came back were all the result of substantial re-scoping downward because the project would have been over the allocation, and then adding back items to the project after the bids came back. I am alarmed that approving this item could establish a precedent and an incentive for pre-bid estimates to come in higher to create cash piñatas for other agency projects.”

In addition, Jacqué said he was extremely troubled that the DOA was telling lawmakers that the UW System already exceeded its ‘All Agency SEG REV’ allocation for the Small Project Program less than a year into the biennium and was asking for an additional influx of funds to increase to a level two and two-thirds times what had already been spent. The universities say an additional $25 million is required to allow the UW System to continue approving critical infrastructure demand requests at its 13 universities.

“This not only raises concerns about how carefully projects are being screened and prioritized, but brings into question the system’s preparedness for unexpected catastrophic failures like when the large slab of concrete fell at Van Hise Hall,” he said.

Then, Jacqué continued, there were funds held in reserve in the UW small projects allocation to pay for the repair work begun under the governor’s emergency authorization: “Now, apparently, if a similar situation occurs, the repairs can’t even begin because there are no funds in the underlying account.”

What’s more, Jacqué said he was alarmed that the very first sentence of an article in the Wisconsin State Journal in the previous week stated that “UW-Madison is adding a business partnership floor to its upcoming engineering building.”

“Really?” he asked. “When did that get approved? What need is there for the building commission to even meet if the expectation is there for a rubber stamp whenever requested? The $43.4 million in proposed additional gifts and grants, on top of those that have not even been committed yet for the underlying project, do not yet exist, and the more money that taxpayers give to the project, the less pressure there is for increased industry support or for those planning the project to sharpen their pencils.”

For its part, the UW System says the original capital budget estimate was established prior to a construction manager coming on board to develop a full program and cost estimate based on an actual design, and the requested budget accommodates “several changes” since the design team completed the preliminary design.

The UW System also reported that the increase in the UW-Whitewater Winther Hall/Heide Hall entry additions and renovations project addressed the need to replace underground utilities work not included in the original project budget, while the increase in the UW-Stout Heritage Hall addition and renovation project strengthened the allocated project contingency fund due to unforeseen circumstances discovered after the project was approved for construction in December 2023.

The commission is expected to take up the reallocation request again in January.

Other building projects approved

While the Republicans on the building commission were nixing the fund reallocation within the UW System, they were nonetheless approving other building projects, more than $81 million in key projects statewide.

“Whether preserving our state’s historic sites or investing in the latest equipment for our emergency responders, it is crucial that we invest in projects across our state that will not only modernize facilities to meet the needs of the 21st century but advance our state agencies, universities, and technical colleges and grow both our local and state economies,” Evers said after the projects were approved. “Every project approved today is critical to our communities.”

Among the approved projects, the commission released Building Trust Funds to prepare a preliminary design for a new Fire Response Equipment Facility and Fire Equipment Fabrication Storage Facility at the Lemay Forestry Center for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). 

The DNR says those two new facilities will help preserve new and existing vehicles and equipment, as well as provide a centralized wildland fire response station for programs in the area.

The commission also gave a green light to the exterior rehabilitation of the historic Charles Robinson House at the Wade House State Historic Site in the town of Greenbush and to address several building repairs, including deficiencies identified in the Historic Structure Report. The Charles Robinson House is listed in both the National and State Register of Historic Places due to its Greek Revival architectural style and its association with the history of local exploration and settlement, the administration states.

The construction of the Phase I and II chiller modifications at the Wisconsin Veterans Home at King in Waupaca County was approved. The project will improve operational needs and efficiencies, as well as provide necessary emergency power backup capabilities, the administration states.

Then, too, the commission gave a nod to three UW System projects under the Instructional Space and Technology Projects Program, targeting what the UW says are essential upgrades to instructional spaces across multiple campuses. Projects include renovations at UW-Green Bay’s Studio Arts center, UW-Madison’s Steenbock Memorial Library, and UW-Oshkosh’s Arts and Communication Center Music Hall, the administration states. 

The improvements are designed to address deferred maintenance and accessibility standards, as well as to improve modern learning environments.

Another go-ahead was given to exterior envelope maintenance and repair to the UW-Platteville Williams Fieldhouse as part of the 2023-25 Minor Facilities Renewal Program, which the administration says will improve storefront and vestibule issues and increase energy efficiency.

Finally, the commission authorized 22 facility maintenance and repair projects across various state agencies, including the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs, the DNR, the Wisconsin Historical Society, and the UW System.

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.