UW justified in Huge Surplus; Walker Republicans Created "Uncertainty" over Future Funding.

Why is this one BIG detail being left out?

In the last biennial budget go round, Scott Walker and his gang of legislative pirates cut $300 million from the UW system.

That’s a lot right? And you might have noticed how a few attempts by Republicans to break up the UW, to penalize it for being too liberal, for shutting down a Walker protest poster art show by students, continued massive funding cuts, etc.

THE CUTS-Kevin Reilly wrote in October of 2011: “In the midst of a crushing economic downturn, our elected state leaders crafted a two-year budget that reflected tough choices, including $250 million in reduced state funding for the University of Wisconsin System.”

By December 2011, the Journal Sentinel wrote: “….including an additional $46.1 million cut in funds for the University of Wisconsin System.”

So after putting away $648 million in reserve funds, with plans for spending $441 million of that, that leaves just $206 million. That seems dangerously risky, if history is any indicator.

According to another story, the cuts were no big deal:

Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee, said he believes the UW System will be able to weather the cuts. "I think they will be able to do it in a way that doesn't dramatically affect the university or dramatically affect the state. . . . Everyone - Democrat or Republican - would agree the budget must be balanced," Vos said.

The cuts amounted to just about half of the surplus Republicans are whining about now. Here's coverage from WKOW's Capitol City Sunday:



So just to be clear, the UW wasn't justified in hedging their bets against any future cuts by the anti-UW Republican legislators? I think not.