Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's budget repair bill was at the forefront of Monday night's regular Student Government Associated Meeting.

The SGA passed a resolution condemning SB 6, the bill to require a valid Wisconsin photo ID to vote under consideration in the state legislature, as being particularly restrictive of students' rights. The vote passed with a tally of nine in favor, with none against and none abstaining. Copies of the resolution will be sent to the governor and state representatives.

The next item on the agenda was a similar resolution condemning Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's budget repair bill. Discussion focused on the strength of language. Senator Mike Dean also raised an objection to the resolution, saying that faculty had not yet been able to use their collective bargaining rights, and so therefore would not be affected by the bill. In the end, the resolution failed to gain the required majority of votes with a total of four in favor, one against, and four abstaining.

Todd Nordgren of United Council, an organization of students in the University of Wisconsin system, spoke at length on a number of issues, including Governor Walker's budget and its expected effect on tuitions.  Although Governor Walker's biennial budget would not be released until March 1st, there was conjecture that state aid to the University system would be maintained at or reduced from the funding level of two years ago. Another item United Council is specifically working on is a restoration of funds to Wisconsin Higher Education Grants. With the downturn in the economy, more people qualify for grants that are awarded on their ability to pay for more schooling. The fund ran out in July of this year, with 25,000 eligible people unable to get funding.

Another item in the budget repair bill is the splitting off of the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus from the rest of the university system. Nordgren said that this would have the effect of walling off UW–Madison's resources and research from the other schools in the system, and possibly lessening the value of degrees from the other schools because they would not be affiliated with Madison's reputation.

Senator Graham Garfield mentioned Madison's reputation as a leader in the field of stem-cell research, and that there would be questions of grants for that research being restricted. Nordgren went on to say that Chancellor Martin of UW–Madison felt that any resulting loss of funds would be made up by private funding, and that she would be in favor of raising tuition to be in the top third of colleges nationwide, meaning perhaps a tuition increase of 100 – 150 percent at Madison.

Senator Jake Lindberg asked if it would be possible to bring the resolution condemning the budget repair bill back to a vote in light of the new information. This time the resolution passed on a vote of six in favor, two opposed, and one abstention.

In other business, President Jessica Duffy reported that she had met with Mary Ellen Couture of the Collegiate Readership Program to discuss ways to ensure that all students who wanted would have access to the newspapers provided by the program. While students pay just under $5 per year for the papers, they are being picked up by faculty and staff, who are not paying for them. President Duffy is planning on posting signs saying that the papers are for student use, rather than raise fees for students or instituting some sort of ID program.