The president of the University of Wisconsin wants nearly a $1 billion more from lawmakers in the next state budget. UW president Jay Rothman said he needs $914 million in order to avoid another tuition increase. Rothman said the University of Wisconsin ranks 43rd in terms of the percent of state dollars it receives. He said it will take $457 million in each year of Wisconsin’s two-year state budget to bring the UW into line with other Big Ten schools.

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Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/wisconsin/article_63f94ee4-5f1a-11ef-9290-870cfb79e69f.html

There is now a First Amendment challenge to Wisconsin’s personalized license plate restrictions. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty wants a judge to strike down the state law that allows the Department of Motor Vehicles to ban license plates that are deemed “objectionable.” The case stems from a Wisconsin man who wanted a license plate that read RD RRAGE. The DMV allowed him to get the plate in 2003 but later denied his request to renew it.

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Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/wisconsin/article_3d766930-5a3f-11ef-afc9-8b4b7fd6acb5.html

There are more than 100,000 more people enrolled in Medicaid in Wisconsin now than before COVID struck. Wisconsin Medicaid director Bill Hanna spoke at a Wisconsin Health News Newsmaker event Tuesday. He said while Wisconsin’s Medicaid enrollments are down from their peak, more people are receiving government health care now than before the pandemic.

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Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/wisconsin/article_a37819cc-599f-11ef-a3bc-a751a5d747f9.html

The outgoing state representative in the town of Summit is asking for legislative hearings into the mix up that had people there voting in the wrong statehouse race. Rep. Angie Sapik, R-Lake Nebagamon, on Wednesday called for an information hearing in front of the Assembly’s Committee on Campaigns and Elections because some voters were given ballots with the wrong Assembly district. Sapik said the recent redistricting caused “confusion,” and had the clerk send the wrong ballots to some voters in the Assembly’s 73rd and 74th districts.

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Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/wisconsin/article_58c453f6-5a6b-11ef-a774-8fdfe19f6efe.html

Voters in Wisconsin haven’t changed their minds in a while about their elected leaders in Madison. The latest Marquette Law School Poll shows the approval ratings for Gov. Tony Evers and the legislature are relatively unchanged. Pollsters say 51% of voters approve of Gov. Evers’ job performance, while 44% disapprove. Those numbers are largely the same as they were in the Marquette Polls from June, April, January and even November.

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Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/wisconsin/article_e88f8df2-557f-11ef-a223-635f785e6065.html

Local governments across Wisconsin may be looking to raise taxes now that their transportation fees are in legal limbo. The Wisconsin Supreme Court denied a petition from the Village of Pewaukee to hear its case that sought to save its transportation fee. Pewaukee, like many local governments across the state, turned to a transportation utility fee to raise money for local road projects. Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce sued, arguing the fee is nothing more than a tax by another name, and Pewaukee exceeded its taxing authority by charging the fee.

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Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/wisconsin/article_69c3ebc0-5355-11ef-92ca-db64382136f4.html

The Wisconsin state representative who got three fake military ballots in the mail two years ago is now getting mail for at least one of those same fake people. Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, on Tuesday said she recently got a letter for Holly Adams. Brandtjen made headlines in October of 2022 when she turned three fake military ballots over to investigators. It turned out, a former deputy clerk in Milwaukee’s election office sent them to her house by registering fake voters. The clerk said she sent the ballots to expose a loophole in Wisconsin’s MyVote system.

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Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/wisconsin/article_81c69a0c-541c-11ef-b47d-679e1e06ce3d.html

Members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission are not worried about computer glitches or a shortage of ballots on Election Day in November. They’re worried about outside agitation and election disruptions. Elections Commission Chair Ann Jacobs told WisPolitics her biggest fear on is an effort to freeze Wisconsin’s votes. Republican Elections Commissioner Don Mills said he too is worried that someone, or a group, may try and derail the process this fall.

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Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/wisconsin/article_109ee904-4f69-11ef-9037-6fc8f61ae02a.html

Most of Wisconsin’s high school students say they are anxious or depressed, and that has the state’s superintendent of schools asking for more money. Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction on Tuesday released the results from the latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The survey is now a semi-annual thing, offered every other year. In the spring 2023, 1,882 Wisconsin students in 42 public, charter and alternative high schools took the test. There are nearly 850,000 school students in Wisconsin, meaning less than one-half of one-percent of children took the survey. Still, Underly said the results tell a tale of a mental health crisis.

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Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/wisconsin/article_bc1364cc-4eab-11ef-b1d0-df38733fcf29.html

A consulting firm with former public school administrators will lead the audit into Milwaukee Public Schools’ financial woes. Gov. Tony Evers on Monday named MGT of America Consulting to lead the probe. MGT will handle the audit into MPS’ “operations, processes, and procedures.” That includes an examination of how Milwaukee’s school district were being months late with key state financial reports, and how MPS wrongfully collected millions of dollars in federal money.

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Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/wisconsin/article_01b26032-4ddf-11ef-96c3-1b2c5afcdb85.html