LSU President F. King Alexander wrapped up a whirlwind week of speaking engagements today with an address to the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge, his sixth in the past seven days. As with his previous speeches, Alexander outlined the doomsday scenario LSU faces—an 82% reduction of the university’s budget—if state lawmakers don’t come up with a way to stave off some $600 million in budget cuts planned for higher education.
“As I’ve said before, this budget, if unmitigated, is cartoon-like,” Alexander said. “When I first saw it I felt like I’d opened a Bazooka bubble gum wrapper.”
While Alexander’s speeches have been well received everywhere he has gone, the “mitigations” he refers to—revenue-generating solutions to help offset those deep, threatened budget cuts—are not so uniformly popular, even among some of higher education’s biggest allies. The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry is already balking at the governor’s proposal to repeal the business-friendly inventory tax credit, which would reduce the cuts by some $376 million and help higher ed considerably.
“If it comes down to it, LABI will oppose anything that will raise a $400 million price tag on doing business in Louisiana,” LABI’s Brigitte Nieland told Daily Report earlier this week. However, she added, “That isn’t the only black and white option. We think there are lots of potential solutions out there.”
Alexander is also careful not to pit the situation as a potential struggle between old allies.
“We don’t want to be pitted against business,” he said. “The last thing we want do is be in a battle against other organizations when that’s not our job. Our job is to support plans and programs … and to push for autonomies that allow us to respond to the realities of the market we’re living in.”
Alexander says he is hopeful all sides will be able to find a compromise in the coming weeks. With the legislative session set to begin on April 13, lawmakers have already begun combing through Jindal’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, when the state faces a $1.6 billion budget gap.
—Stephanie Riegel
