MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin, like most other states across the nation, has faced a chronic revenue shortage and very tight budgets in recent years.

That means the various arms of Wisconsin state government – including the massive University of Wisconsin system – have been forced to bite the bullet and deal with less state funding.

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But there’s one big difference on UW campuses. While public colleges and universities in other states have reacted to the cash flow crisis by increasing student tuition, UW in-state tuition has been frozen since 2013, by order of Gov. Scott Walker.

Walker intends to maintain the tuition freeze as part of his next biennial budget plan, which will go to the legislature next year., according to a news report from Madison.com.

“To build on our commitment to student success, we must extend our tuition freeze,” Walker was quoted as saying by Madison.com. “This will make our universities affordable and accessible.”

Recent history suggests that Walker’s stubborn tuition freeze is necessary for UW students, because the university system has not hesitated in the past to dramatically increase student costs.

Prior to 2013, the last tuition freeze for UW students was in 2000, according to Madison.com. Between 2001 and 2009, tuition more than doubled, with annual increases ranging between 5.5 percent and 16.7 percent, the newspaper reported.

“The freeze has kept in-state tuition for UW-Madison undergraduates flat at about $10,400 for the past four years, after tuition rose at well above the rate of inflation for decades,” Madison.com reported.

Top UW officials do not comment a great deal about the popular tuition freeze, although they undoubtedly would like to see it end.

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Their frustration stems from the fact that the state has cut funding for the university system in five of its last six biennial budget cycles, according to Madison.com.

Two years ago the state cut the UW budget by $250 million, and Walker has indicated that the university system should prepare its 2018-19 budget request assuming that there will be no increase in state aid, Madison.com reported.

On the surface, that might look like Walker is putting the financial squeeze on the UW system, by cutting state aid while simultaneously holding the line on student tuition.

But there’s a reason for the governor’s actions. Two years ago he was prepared to increase state funding for UW until he learned that the system had millions of dollars in reserve funds quietly stashed in various accounts, a fact that UW officials did not advertise at budget time.

“Last year, the governor recommended increasing taxpayer funding for UW schools by $181 million over the next two years,” Madison.com reported in 2014. “He reversed course and dropped most of the increase in the following months after learning the UW System had cash amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars — more than a quarter of its unrestricted budget — in thousands of accounts across campuses.

“The cash balance was uncovered by GOP lawmakers and nonpartisan legislative staff during an audit.”

A cash balance still exits. In June, the UW Board of Regents approved a $6.23 billion budget for 2016-17. Spending will increase $37.4 million, despite the state budget cuts, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The extra spending will result in a budget deficit, but that will be covered by the use of $160 million from the controversial reserves. More than half of that amount, about $107 million, will come from leftover tuition dollars, according to the Journal Sentinel.

Student fees will also increase by an average of $59 per year across the university system, the newspaper reported.

Some UW professors and their political allies openly object to the tuition freeze. Perhaps the most outspoken is UW-Madison English Professor Caroline Levine, who made $121,563 in 2014-15.

In the spring she wrote an op-ed un the Madison Capitol Times, arguing that “Top-tier private colleges and universities right now are charging $44,000 or more in tuition each year, more than three times the rate of in-state tuition for an education at the UW-Madison, ranked in the top 50 universities around the world.

“Why are prices so low? Because politicians have put a cap on tuition.”

Levine did not mention that labor costs – including her own six-figure salary – have played a major role in driving up tuition costs over the years.

In December 2015, the UW system had 2,842 employees, including many professors and administrators, making more than $100,000 per year in straight salary, not counting benefits. A total of 279 made more than $200,000 in straight salary, according to a published database.

Between 2004-05 and 2013-14, UW-Madison faculty received general raises totaling more than 23 percent. Meanwhile, the annual cost of student tuition and fees rose from $5,866 in 2004-05 to $10,403 in 2012-13.

With the tuition freeze, there is no constant flow of new revenue to support big raises for faculty and administrators. That must be why Levine and some others dislike the idea.