Gov. Tony Evers signs legislation in March 2024 funding a new UW-Madison engineering building. On Wednesday, the State Building Commission divided on party lines, blocking a plan to transfer unspent money for other projects, including the engineering building. (Screenshot via @GovEvers Twitter page)

The on-again, off-again plan for a new engineering building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has hit a new roadblock, with Republican lawmakers questioning how the state was constructing its building project bids and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers accusing  them of last-minute political gamesmanship.

The four Republicans on the eight-member commission voted against a proposal Wedmesday that would have provided $29 million for the UW-Madison engineering building from unspent funds.

The engineering building has been a political football over the last two years since Republican lawmakers sought to use the project as leverage to force the UW system to reduce or eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

After the Republican majority excluded the engineering building funding from the 2023-25 state budget, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos pressured the University of Wisconsin Regents to accept an agreement that reframed diversity initiatives. In return, the Legislature passed and Evers signed in March legislation transferring $423 million to the state’s capital improvement fund for UW projects, including $197 million for the engineering building.

At Wednesday’s State Building Commission meeting, the Evers administration proposed taking $70 million from projects at the UW Eau Claire for which bids came in under budget. The proposal called for redirecting the unspent funds to other projects already approved by the building commission.

In addition to the $29 million for the engineering building, the redirected funds were proposed to go to projects at UW-Whitewater ($10.5 million), UW-Stout ($5.4 million) and assorted university repair and maintenance projects ($25 million).

While blocking the transfer, the commission approved $81 million in projects across the state.

In a statement issued after the commission votes, Evers called the approved projects “critical to our communities” and condemned the vote blocking the transfer, calling it “partisan obstruction” to the UW.

“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.

In statements released after they voted against the transfer, GOP lawmakers on the commission complained that, among other things, the engineering building project’s design had been expanded beyond what had been previously proposed.

“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 all the changes until it was time for the vote,” said state Rep. Robert Wittke (R-Racine).

Sen. Andre Jacque (R-DePere) cited a news report that the UW-Madison planned to add an additional floor to proposed engineering building and criticized the university for not consulting the Legislature or the building commission about the change. Jacque also questioned why the original estimate for the Eau Claire projects had exceeded the costs based on the final bids.

The commission’s next regularly scheduled meeting is in February, but Evers said his administration will bring the transfer proposal back to the body in January.