Louisiana’s public colleges have been asked to prepare for cuts totaling as much as $131 million across campuses in the next five months, in case lawmakers and the governor don’t agree on ways to raise revenue to fill a deep budget gap.
The Associated Press reports Gov. John Bel Edwards’ chief budget adviser, Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, asked for the budget cut proposals in a letter to the state’s higher education leaders this week. LSU President F. King Alexander released the letter in an online posting Friday and described it in an email to university system employees.
“LSU’s statewide operations would bear roughly $65 million of that number. We have four days to provide a general plan of how we will respond to the potential cuts,” Alexander wrote.
Dardenne says the reductions could be necessary to balance this year’s budget, if lawmakers don’t agree to raise taxes or find other ways to generate new money to close a gap estimated at more than $700 million. Dardenne asked the LSU System to prepare for taking half the higher education cuts. The Southern University System would get 6% of the reductions, the University of Louisiana System would take 29% and the Louisiana Community and Technical College System would get about 15%.
Edwards has proposed a list of tax options for lawmakers to consider in a planned special legislative session expected to begin Feb. 14.
“We are in for a long legislative season that will generate troubling news stories,” Alexander says. “I remain confident that we have demonstrated our significant worth to Louisiana and that our state will continue to prioritize our work.”
Such a cut to higher education represents about 18% of the total state funds provided to campuses this year, but the slashing would be worsened by the compressed time period because less than half the budget year remains.
