Potential higher education budget cuts loom in 2017 legislative session

Billions of dollars will be up for grabs at the 2017 legislative session beginning on Monday. Utah State University, along with other higher education institutions, is preparing to battle for funding.

If USU doesn’t receive enough funding from the legislative session, students might have to make up for the gap by paying more in tuition in the coming years.

The money USU receives during the legislative session will supplement tuition, thanks to federal and state funding and taxpayers — but the university doesn’t receive that funding magically.

A team of Utah State representatives, including Neil Abercrombie, the director of government relations at USU, advocate for students on behalf of students for keeping tuition as cheap as reasonably possible.

“For any student who is paying tuition, it feels high,” said Abercrombie.

State policy-makers are concerned about keeping tuition low — that’s their number one concern, said Abercrombie. They have to balance how to maintain a higher education and keep tuition affordable.

“We’ve been pretty fortunate in the past years with higher education funding and hopefully we can keep tuition increases modest in comparison to our peers,” he said.

Last year, funding for higher education was easy to get because statewide income was high, which meant taxes were high enough that there was leftover money for one-time spending. However, things aren’t looking so optimistic this year because state revenue has been more flat, so legislators will most likely be stingier with their budgeting.

“This does not necessarily mean that things will go down,” Abercrombie said.

On-going spending will also be pretty tight, despite Gov. Gary Herbert’s “aggressive” steps forward for education, said Abercrombie.

“It’s going to be one of those sessions where we’re going to be fortunate to not be talking about cuts,” he said. “But we’re not going backwards on anything.”

USU teamed up with the rest of the public higher education institutions in Utah. Their first priority is receiving compensation funding for staff, which would include a 3 percent salary increase. Their second goal is to keep up with market demands by getting ongoing funds to expand programs.

USU will ask for $1.2 million for renovating and relocating the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney Biology and Natural Resources building, which would be rebuilt where the College of Agriculture used to be. The money would also go toward making labs more up-to-date.

Traditionally, former President Albrecht focused on building and cultivating USU’s infrastructure.

Now, President Noelle Cockett will focus on the undergraduate experience, said Abercrombie. That means improving student wellness issues and opportunities for internships and global engagement.

“She understands the academic mission of the university as well or better than anyone on this campus,” he said. “It’s an easy transition.”

Balancing public and higher education:

Another challenge Utah faces, particularly for education funding, is dealing with the negative impacts of the “family focus.” With high population growth and large families that are out of proportion with income tax, there’s a strain on education funding. The state of Utah already directs 100 percent of income tax to fund education and the majority of property taxes go toward funding education.

“But we’re still the lowest-funded state in the nation for public education,” he said.   

To address this, Abercrombie said the legislature could look into increasing income taxes.

“How do we maintain the funding balance and not have an increase in the budget?” he said. “That’ll be up to the citizens.”

The Trump Administration:

As Trump steps up to the plate as president and his cabinet takes over, Abercrombie doesn’t know what the future of federal politics will mean for higher education funding.

Political analysts don’t know a lot about Trump’s stances on education — he only gave one speech about it on the campaign trail. Needless to say, between things like Pell Grants, student assistance and research, the Trump presidency has a huge impact on education in America. USU alone received $200 million last year for research funding, most of which is federal money.

Abercrombie said he’s glad Utah has “strong higher education allies.”

“We keep a very close eye on what’s happened at D.C.” he said. “We’ll see how things develop.”

— morgan.pratt.robinson@gmail.com

@morganprobinson

Graphic by Emmalee Olsen