MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY - The state's higher education budget continues making its way through the legislative process, though what it ends up looking like remains far from certain.
For the time being the news is the same for the state's institutions of higher education including the UM system. During a session Monday the House Budget Committee upheld the recommendation of the House Appropriations Committee on Education to cut funding for four year institutions by 10 percent.
The House Budget committee is in the final stages of discussing and finalizing recommendations from Appropriations Committees as it prepares its proposal for the state budget. The budget is divided into a series of bills, and the bill containing higher education funding was among those "closed" by the commitee on Monday. Though the closed version of the bill is likely to be the one presented to the full House, it still needs to be voted on by the committee. Many members indicate that vote could happen by the end of this week.
During Monday's hearing Rep. Denny Merideth, D-Caruthersville, offered an ammendment that would have dealt four year institutions an additional 1 percent budget cut. The committee defeated the ammendment, but Merideth said part of his intent was to highlight a couple of issues. First, he said that by his calculations only 37 percent of four-year institution funding comes from state general revenue. As a result, the proposed cuts wouldn't translate into a 10 percent reduction in each institution's overall budget. Second, he said in the last few years there has been a disparity in the funding increases for higher education compared to areas such as agriculture.
"I wanted to bring it out into discussion," Merideth said.
State funding for the UM system is "sliding backwards," said UM system lobbyist Jim Snider. Accounting for inflation, Snider said the funding currently proposed for the system would be at the same level as in 1997. Snider said the majority of recent funding increases were to pay for specific mission enhancement projects that were recommended by the governor and endorsed by the legislature.
Rep. Chuck Graham, Budget Committee member and chair of the Appropriations Committee on Education, said the Budget Committee's decision indicated to him that people feel higher education has been cut as far as they're willing to go.
"I'm really hopeful that the bleeding has been stopped today," Graham said.