SIU President Glenn Poshard said Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed budget has put the university one step closer to possible furloughs and layoffs.
Poshard said the university is preparing a budget that reflects the bleak outlook the governor gave in his budget address Wednesday. Gov. Pat Quinn proposed $2.2 billion in cuts for next fiscal year, $1.3 billion of which comes from education.
On top of the $100 million cut from federal stimulus money and the more than $20 million cut from state support outlined in Quinn’s address, Poshard said the university continues to battle delayed payments and threats of more cuts.
The state still owes the university $150 million for this year and a proposal in the Legislature could cost the university 10 percent of its fiscal year 2010 budget, which would result in layoffs of 15 percent of SIU system personnel for the rest of the fiscal year, Poshard said.
The uncertainty of when the outstanding payments could come in and the proposed cuts for next year has led the university to prepare for furloughs and layoffs, Poshard said.
“It really puts us under the gun because we can’t sustain our operations with the cuts that we are expecting,” Poshard said. “We are developing budgets with all the decreases factored in and no tuition or income tax increases because we can only go with what we know for sure is going to happen.”
Poshard said the university must present its budget and request funding from a Senate committee by the end of March for approval. SIU spokesman Dave Gross said the initial request is usually much higher than what is appropriated and said funding from the state could be down to as low as fiscal year 2000 levels. The operating budget for this year is $235 million and could fall to $219 million for fiscal year 2011, Gross said.
Of the potential $16 million decrease, $11 million would be cut from the Carbondale campus, Gross said.
The severity of the cuts could depend on whether Gov. Quinn is able to convince members of his party a temporary 1 percent income tax increase is necessary to offset the cuts to education.
“The governor’s leadership is going to be tested here to see if he can convince members of his own party the tax increase is necessary,” Gross said. “It’s hard to see a Republican signing on to a tax increase during elections, so it will be interesting to see if this can be done.”
If a temporary income tax is not passed, the university will turn to its last resort in the borrowing authority, Poshard said. The bill is in the House and is scheduled to be heard in a committee session Wednesday, Gross said.
Poshard said there has been no signs of support for the income tax and without the borrowing authority, the university is running out of options to cover the deficit left by the state.
“Our first goal is to keep our people working and not raise tuition,” Poshard said. “We have done everything short of personnel cuts, but we are going to continue to take this a day at a time and develop the best budget we can.”
Jeff Engelhardt can be reached at jengelhardt@dailyegyptian.com or 536-3311 ext. 254.
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