Friday, Jan. 27 2012 8:08AM
Higher education braces for proposed 12.5 percent cut
By Rob Roberts, rroberts@lsjournal.com
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ReprintGov. Jay Nixon’s proposal to slash 12.5 percent of Missouri’s spending on public colleges and universities was not entirely unexpected given state government’s projected $500 million budget shortfall.
But the proposal, announced during the governor’s Jan. 17 State of the State address to the General Assembly, caused considerable wincing among lawmakers and local college officials.
“Obviously, it’s not what we had hoped for,” said Fred Grogan, president of Metropolitan Community College’s Longview campus, “although I can’t say we were greatly surprised.”
State Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee’s Summit, said the cut, if enacted, would be the deepest ever made to higher-education budgets and would come in the wake of a 7 percent cut last year and a 4 percent cut the year before.
It would mean total cuts of about $106 million in next year’s budget, including an estimated $6.6 million cut for the University of Central Missouri, which has a campus in Lee’s Summit, and a $3.75 million cut for the five-campus MCC system. Of that amount, Grogan said, slightly less than $750,000 would probably have to be cut from the Longview budget. And that could mean an enrollment cap for the first time in the college’s history. “It’s not something we want to do,” Grogan said. “But I would have to say that could be very possible.”
Across the state, higher-education leaders have been warning that a 12.5 percent cut could also lead to more faculty and course reductions and pressure for tuition increases.
The governor has said he wants the state-funded institutions to deal with declining government support by becoming more efficient and moving to innovative business models.
Charles Ambrose, who became president of the Warrensburg-based University of Central Missouri in 2010, was not immediately available for comment. But during his State of the State address, Nixon pointed to a UCM program that allows some undergraduate degrees to be obtained in three years or less as an example of the innovation called for by the times.
Ambrose, who talked to the Journal during his inauguration week last October, noted then that UCM would further deal with declining state support through more partnerships with business. Toward that end, Ambrose has been working toward the development a new “green technology” campus in Lee’s Summit that will involve UCM, MCC, the Lee’s Summit R-7 School District and the private sector as partners. The Lee’s Summit Economic Development Council has been an essential piece of that partnership.
Grogan said MCC is currently engaged in a systemwide operations review that will determine the best way to deal with further state funding declines.
“About 26 percent of our funding now comes from the state,” Grogan said. “At one time, back in the early 1980s, it was about 40 percent.”
As cuts have accelerated in recent years, he said, MCC has been forced to postpone the addition of courses, leave vacant positions open and rely more heavily on part-time adjunct faculty.
Last year, Grogan added, MCC was able to minimize the impact of state cuts by raising its tuition by 5 percent, to $87 per credit hour. But it’s unclear how much of a tuition increase the governor will tolerate going forward.
Last year, the University of Missouri system raised tuition 5.5 percent, ignoring Nixon’s request that increases be limited to 5 percent, and the governor responded by withholding 1.1 percent of the system’s state funding.
According to Sen. Kraus, Nixon might act similarly if the legislature trims the level of the proposed 12.5 percent cut.
“I think the Missouri Senate will put more money into higher education,” Kraus said. “We did that last year, when the governor proposed a 7 percent cut. We found the money to get it to 5 percent, but then the governor withheld the money (effectively restoring the 7 percent cut). ... But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to try again.”
According to State Rep. Jeff Grisamore, R-Lee’s Summit, his fear is that a 12.5 percent cut “will trigger sharp tuition increases that would really hurt Missouri students.”
As a member of the House budget committee, Grisamore said he would work to reduce the 12.5 percent cut.
During a recent budget committee hearing, Grisamore said, he produced a chart showing that the total state budget had increased fourfold during the past 25 years, from $5.7 billion to $23 billion.
The gross domestic product and consumer price index have each increased only about 100 percent during the same span, meaning “state government has grown four times faster than the national average,” Grisamore said. Nevertheless, he added, the colleges and universities are hurting. State support for higher education and public K-12 schools combined has declined from 35 percent of the budget in 1986 to 27 percent today, Grisamore said. Meanwhile, state spending for social services and mental health has increased from 27 percent of the budget to 45 percent, he said.
State Rep. Mike Cierpiot, R-Lee’s Summit, said that, in his opinion, “higher education is a better target than families with children with disabilities.”
“Unfortunately, our choices are bad and worse,” he said.
According to Cierpiot, he thinks the General Assembly will be able to achieve some reduction of the proposed 12.5 percent cut in college and university funding. “But I think they will still be the ones who take it worst,” he said.
