Editor’s note: This article is the second in a five-part series that will try to explain the UNMC budget and its relationship to a legislative special session that will take place later this month.
During the past 14 years, the state of Nebraska’s general fund budget has increased by 125 percent.
Yet, the University of Nebraska’s allocation from the state general fund grew by only 77 percent.
Meanwhile, state aid to individuals and others rose more than 204 percent; state aid to local governments rose more than 126 percent; and the allocation to state agencies, excluding the University of Nebraska, was more than 100 percent.
“We’re not the fat cats that everybody thinks we are,” said Ron Withem, director of governmental relations for the University of Nebraska.
That’s one of the messages that university leaders will stress over the next few weeks, when Nebraska legislators will meet during a special session to decide how they will cut more than $250 million out of the state’s budget.
The special session is a result of lower-than-expected revenue that is forecast over the next year. Earlier predictions indicated that the state would take in $2.69 billion in revenue in 2002-2003. The newest forecast shows that $2.56 billion is expected to be put into the state’s coffers.
NU will be a target for the cuts, and there’s little doubt that it ultimately will share in them, Withem said. Unfortunately, he said, many citizens in the state believe that because funding for the University of Nebraska is such a large item in the state budget, there’s a sense that the university always is treated to a large increase. That’s untrue, he said.
Twelve years ago, the university’s appropriation was more than 20 percent of the state general fund budget. Now, that figure is 16 percent.
One reason that it’s difficult for the university to absorb budget cuts, Withem said, is because the state-aided budget — comprised mostly of revenue from the state general fund and student tuition — funds the vast majority of the programs typically viewed as university activities. Those include instruction, research, extension, public service and other core support services. Non state-aided funds are raised or given to the university for specific activities and cannot be transferred to other functions.
Tomorrow: How did the state of Nebraska fall into its current fiscal crisis?