Nick Todaro, Reporter
03-13-2009
Legislators on the joint legislative budget committee were given a look this morning at the highly anticipated executive budget from Gov. Bobby Jindal, outlining his $26.7 billion budget plan for Louisiana during the global financial crisis.
Reports have swirled since a meeting between the governor and university system leadership last week that $219 million in cutbacks are coming for higher education specifically. A 9:30 a.m. committee meeting today in Baton Rouge was set that would illuminate that possibility.
The Jindal administration was reluctant to give advance information about the governor’s proposed budget for the year beginning July 1. The $26.7 billion proposal represents a nearly 10 percent decrease in funding from the 2008-09 budget year.
“We will need to make significant cuts,” Jindal’s top budget crafter, Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis, told lawmakers recently.
Revenue estimates project a $1.3 billion total statewide shortfall, with that number jumping to $1.7 billion when inflation and rising healthcare and retirement costs are factored in. The capital must maintain a balanced budget.
“Certainly I think we’re going to have to do more with less, set priorities and make sure that even while we’re tightening our belt that we are moving forward,” Jindal said.
He said today he is proposing office closures and consolidations, as well as the elimination of more than 1,400 government jobs and cuts that reach across agencies.
The governor’s budget is the first volley in a months-long budget-crafting battle. Lawmakers will deal with the state’s finances throughout the legislative session beginning in April.
Higher education officials first began dealing with cuts just before Christmas.
The state announced a $341 million shortfall that would require mid-year trimming, with initial estimates of more than $100 million in cuts to higher education. University leaders around the state spent the Christmas holiday figuring out where to cut and cause the least damage.
The governor’s office was able to reduce higher education’s burden of cuts to around $55 million at the end of 2008.
Louisiana Tech, for example, handled a $2.65 million cut instead of the $4.7 million it had been discussing. Grambling State University, initially planning for $2.7 million in cuts, also saw less taken away in mid-year.
Institutions froze travel and new positions, among other costs, in an effort to reduce the impact on the academic terms in session or about to begin.
Since crossing that hurdle, higher education officials have been watching numbers for the 2009-10 fiscal year cuts fluctuate. The governor’s office informed the Board of Regents they should prepare for a range of cuts between 18 and 30 percent of their total budget.
Universities were planning under those numbers before the news of $219 million in possible cuts became public knowledge.
The Board of Regents’ reaction has included fast-tracking the process of dissolving some low-completer programs statewide, and campus responses to those plans are coming due in April, said Regents Association Commissioner of Public Affairs Meg Casper.
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