It is somewhat gratifying to see bureaucratic machinations come back to bite the bureaucrats.

MADISON (WKOW) — Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) made it clear to 27 News Thursday that it is very unlikely the state legislature will go out of its way to restore much of the $300 million cut to the UW System proposed in Gov. Scott Walker’s 2015-17 state budget.

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“I think with the out-of-state and the graduate student tuition increases that the Regents implemented there probably seems to be even less of a commitment to backfill that,” said Sen. Fitzgerald.

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“I always say put it in context,” said Sen. Fitzgerald. “About a year and a half ago we were all sitting around wondering why the UW System had such a surplus and after we dug into it a little bit further it was more of a campus by campus thing, but I think because of that there are some legislators who still have kind of a bitter taste in their mouth about what do the UW’s finances look like and how solvent are they right now.”

So after hiding hundreds of millions of dollars while crying poor; and jacking up tuition by $6k for out-of-state kids; and failing to advance any real efficiency reforms; there is very little sympathy left in the legislature for UW’s complaints about the governor’s proposed funding cut.