USU funding reduced as economy lags
In a special legislative session the Utah legislature passed a bill that will effectively decrease the USU budget by 4 percent. This decrease of approximately $6.5 million, will be across the entire university, not singling out individual colleges.
This action came about after Governor Huntsman called a special legislative session to deal with the turbulent economy and shortfalls in revenue. The action affects not only USU, but all other state universities as well as agencies such as the Department of Public Safety, Department of Human Services and Department of Natural Resources.
“It was a 4 percent reduction across the board,” said Michael Kennedy, USU’s special assistant to the president for federal and state relations. “At some point it was up to 8 or 9 percent, but it was brought down to 4 percent. Cuts are never a good thing – we’re happy with four percent.”
The bill, S.B. 2001, was introduced on Sept. 26. It passed in the Utah Senate with a 25-0 vote (four absent) and 56-14 (four absent) in the Utah House of Representatives.
Lead analyst Jonathan C. Ball said the impact of the bill will be small.
“Enactment of this bill likely will not result in direct, measurable costs and/or benefits for individuals, businesses or local governments,” he said.
Not everyone agrees with the legislature’s actions, including Utah Senate candidate Joe Dulin (D).
“I am very disappointed that the legislature once again chose to make across-the-board cuts in funding when faced with a fiscal dilemma,” Dulin said. “Other options included dipping into the rainy day fund or putting off long-term infrastructure projects (highways). Instead, they chose to hack 4 percent from everyone’s budget but primary education.”
Dulin also said that if elected he would resist such cuts.
“Cuts will come out of highway projects and other frills such as giving Proctor and Gamble $9 million to locate a plant in Brigham City,” he said. “Why the makers of tide would need a state subsidy is beyond me. This is just another example of Republicans lining the pockets of big business while increasing costs to the disabled, poor and students of the state.”
Regardless of political views, the issue is now, what are we going to do about it? The administration at Utah State has begun mobilizing on the issue.
A special campus task force met Monday to discuss the changes that will need to be made. Kennedy said because of the budget cuts it will be necessary to cut some funding in different areas. Deans met with proposals of how each college will handle the reduced budget allotment.
“President Albrecht is dedicated to minimizing the impact on student and faculty,” Kennedy said. “Tuition will not be raised for this school year, but it’s anyone’s guess how the financial outlook will look in January. With the rise in tuition costs over the past few years, increased tuition costs would not be unthinkable.”
Students shouldn’t be too alarmed, though, Kennedy said.
“This is a reflection of what they’ve been reading about in the economy. Utah is doing much better than most of its neighboring states. In other states universities underwent budget cuts as much as 10 to 30 percent,” he said. “Relatively speaking, we are doing well.”
Dulin said he had confidence in the task force to minimize the effects on students.
“The president and his staff are miracle workers when it comes to stuff like this,” Dulin said “I am confident the administration will figure out how to trim the budget without impacting the students.”
He said his ideas for funding include a severance tax on coal production to fund development of solar and wind power generation on college campuses throughout Utah.
– r.perkins@aggiemail.usu.edu