Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The state of Kansas is continuing to play a balancing game in an effort to bridge the existing $400,000 budget gap in higher education.
This year’s higher education budget of $747 million is at the same level it was in 2006. For the next fiscal year, Gov. Mark Parkinson recommended an increase of $10 million to the budget, which would bring the higher education budget to $757 million in 2011.
Parkinson said in a press release that he expected the expenditure rate for the University of Kansas in 2011 to be more than $742 million.
The money for higher education in Kansas comes from a variety of sources in addition to state funding. In 2008, only 22 percent of revenue came from state appropriations. The University supplements its budget with money from tuition and fees and from private donations.
About 200 positions, almost half of which were faculty positions, have already been cut at the University in the last year because of budget cuts, Kathy Damron, director of state relations for the University, said.
“It’s a dramatic decrease in state support in a time when enrollment at KU is at record level,” Damron said. “You can’t eliminate adequate funding levels for education, when that is really the investment for the future.”
Parkinson said he didn’t want to make any more cuts to higher education. The cuts already amount to $35.5 million for the University and $106 million statewide in the past year.
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said state cuts to the system of higher education could take years to recover from.
To prevent further cuts statewide, Parkinson proposed an increase in taxes, which, if enacted, would generate approximately $380 million, some of which could go to the higher education budget.
“My budget recommendations provide a balanced budget by keeping many current reductions in place and by increasing revenue,” Parkinson said. “However, the recommendations avoid deeper, crippling cuts that would damage the foundation of our state.”
The tax proposal includes a rise in cigarette and tobacco tax from 79 cents to $1.34 and a temporary one-cent rise in sales tax.
“Without the revenue increases, crippling cuts will be applied to all areas of the budget,” Parkinson said.
Damron said now was the time to stop making additional cuts.
“When you’re not increasing investments to higher education, you are really moving backwards,” she said.
— — Edited by Kirsten Hudson
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