Budget passed by legislature includes decrease in funding, rejects fund shift
BOISE — The Idaho Legislature’s budget appropriation of about $520 million for all public universities for Fiscal Year 2015 will ignore University of Idaho President Chuck Staben’s request to freeze tuition for the next year, as well as result in $894,500 pulled from UI because of decreases in enrollment.
The $520 million appropriation covers operating costs for all public universities in Idaho, as well as special appropriations. For example, the funds allocated to UI include $500,000 to fund new academic advisor positions, said Blake Youde, legislative affairs officer for the Idaho State Board of Education.
Chuck Staben
Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter recommended to the legislature during his State of the State address a 3 percent Change in Employee Compensation (CEC) based on merit. The change would give UI department heads the discretion to raise the salaries of state-funded faculty and staff.
However, only about half of UI’s faculty and staff are state funded state-funded employees.
“University of Idaho said we would like to be equitable and provide that equal increase to non-state funded employees,” Youde said.
“Staben had a proposal for UI that wasn’t representative for all universities … and that proposal just didn’t materialize,” Youde said.
Staben, in his address to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee Jan. 26, said the money to fund a 3 percent CEC for non-state funded employees would come from tuition, and so he wanted the legislature to cover the merit-based pay raises for all faculty and staff to avoid a tuition increase.
The appealing nature of his promise to freeze tuition in exchange for the fully funded CEC did not win over lawmakers, Youde said. In fact, he said it was unlikely the legislature would have even considered the proposal due to “competing priorities.”
“The governor’s recommendation didn’t include any coverage of non-state employees for this 3 percent CEC, and by the time budgets are submitted in the fall, those issues have already been debated,” Youde said. “It’s not that they won’t debate new items. They had just made it very clear that K-12 education and transportation are the big budget items this time.”
According to SBOE Chief Fiscal Officer Matt Freeman, the last time the legislature fully funded a CEC increase was in 2009, prior to the recession.
According to Freeman, state appropriations to Idaho universities are based on minor changes to appropriations given the previous year and the exact level of appropriation is worked out at an SBOE meeting hosted in April each year.
He said enrollment is considered when funds are appropriated to universities, and the amount of funding appropriated is largely based off an “enrollment formula.”
“There is an enrollment formula that, when you have enrollment growth and if the legislature funds the formula, then it will direct money to those institutions based on that formula,” Freeman said. “The enrollment formula cuts both ways if you have enrollment declines … Last year, each institution had money pulled out of their budget back to the state, and this year that is true for three of the four.”
UI is one of those universities, and Freeman said it will have $894,500 pulled from its appropriation because of enrollment decreases.
“You have factors that are decided statewide, like funding for health insurance and employee salary increases, that will be uniform across all institutions,” Freeman said “And then you have your enrollment growth and any other specific funding the legislature appropriates.”
George Wood Jr. can be reached at [email protected]