Students and administrators from the University of Louisiana System’s nine schools promoted their institutions at the Capitol on Monday on the eve of another round of recommended budget cuts that education advocates contend could erode their effectiveness in the future, Gannett Louisiana reports.
“Everyone is in survival mode; we’re not building,” says University of Louisiana at Lafayette President Joseph Savoie. “We’ve got to find a solution where there is some stability.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards will announce his recommended reductions Tuesday to close the estimated $750 million shortfall in the 2016-17 budget that begins July 1.
No state-funded agency will be spared, whether it be cuts to TOPS—the state’s popular college tuition program—higher education or the potential closure of many of Louisiana’s safety net hospitals.
“The budget presentation Tuesday is going to be sobering,” Edwards says. “It’s impossible to fashion a budget that fully funds what most people in Louisiana consider critical priorities (with a $750 million shortfall).”
Edwards hopes to mitigate the cuts during a second special session in which he will ask for more tax revenue, but until or if that happens, the reductions will be placed in the budget.
“If we raise more revenue I would love to fully fund TOPS and the safety net hospitals,” he says. “But the budget is no place to do contingent funding.”
University of Louisiana System President Dan Reneau says the administration has told him to expect an 8% to 12% overall cut.
“It’s huge,” Reneau says. “And it’s magnified by whatever happens with TOPS. If TOPS isn’t fully funded, it could cause drops in enrollment, which would make the cut even worse.”
That potentially leaves higher education vulnerable. More than $700 million has already been cut from colleges and universities during the past eight years.
State agencies are also bracing for cuts. Five department heads spoke before the House Appropriations Committee on Monday about the impact of further budget reductions could have on the services those agencies provide.
