Revealed on a rainy Friday the 13th, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s $26.7 billion proposed state spending budget slashes higher education and health care funding significantly. The budget proposal, for fiscal year 2009-2010 that starts July 1, is about 10 percent less than the state’s current budget and reduces health care spending by $413 million and higher education by $219 million. The national recession and slumping state revenue led to the fiscal belt-tightening. The University must cut about $45.1 million under such a budget — a number Chancellor Michael Martin feels will set the University back nearly 10 years and increase the student-faculty ratio, among other grim possibilities. Jindal said at a news conference Friday he is considering performance-based cuts, which could lessen the blow to LSU’s main campus in Baton Rouge. He said he wants to work with legislators to implement a performance-based funding formula that has been in the works for nearly two years.Right now, the funding formula is based mainly on enrollment. The performance-based formula will also include factors like research and an institution’s ability to produce graduates in high-demand professional fields, Jindal said. The performance-based funding formula is being designed and will be implemented by the Louisiana Board of Regents, the governing body of public colleges and universities in the state.”The new funding formula will focus existing and new dollars on performance and be more connected to the missions of our colleges and universities,” Jindal said.  Martin said he wants to see the University rewarded for its high levels of performance. Martin said he is excited the new performance-based formula is being considered for the future distribution of state funds and advocates federal stimulus money being distributed based on performance as well. In a broadcast e-mail sent Friday, Martin said taking a $45 million cut would be like the Flagship Agenda — the plan to make the University nationally competitive by 2010 — never happened. The University broke into the top tier of U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges list in August. Martin said the ranking is a result of the Flagship Agenda and the Legislature funding LSU at the Southern Regional Education Board average during the past two years. The cuts would return the University to its pre-Hurricane Katrina level of state funding, he said. “LSU worked tirelessly to make the most of the funding it received during the past few years, and that funding was still below the national average,” Martin said in a news release. “LSU worked diligently to do a lot with a little. And now, when we are finally getting recognized nationally for academics, we are going to be sent right back to where we were before the Flagship Agenda was created. It’s very disheartening.”Former Chancellor Sean O’Keefe, who made significant strides in fundraising for the Flagship Agenda from 2005 to 2008, said the Flagship Agenda’s goal is for the University to be measured not just as the best university in the state but among the best universities in the region and country.”If state support erodes and the Legislature fails to offset that reduction by permitting tuition to rise, that could compromise the total financial support relative to the peer competitors,” O’Keefe said.LSU System President John Lombardi didn’t respond to an interview request but told administrators in an e-mail the System would request a 5 percent tuition increase to help cope with the large cuts. “We understand the governor’s executive budget will include funding for the TOPS costs associated with the increase,” Lombardi said in the e-mail. While academic campuses in the System can rely on tuition as a revenue source, institutions like the LSU Agricultural Center — a separate entity from the University — cannot. “We don’t have a single student paying tuition,” said Bill Richardson, AgCenter chancellor. According to System documents, the AgCenter would face a $17 million reduction if the Legislature approves the governor’s budget as is. Richardson said he is working with faculty and administrators to prepare for the cuts. The AgCenter’s discretionary state funds for the current fiscal year are about $83 million. Although the System is planning to cut about 20 percent from each academic campus if the governor’s budget is approved, System spokesman Charles Zewe said the cuts are not “across the board.”The System will implement a performance-based support fund composed of 1 percent of state funds from each System institution, according to the documents. LSU’s main campus would receive about $350,000 to help subdue the massive $45.1 million reduction — which includes the now permanent $10.3 million mid-year cut. “Once again, they’ve chosen to do across-the-board cuts,” said Student Government President Colorado Robertson. “LSU is the highest performing university in the state, and we need to be treated as such.”While talk of consolidation and restructuring within the LSU System is rampant — state Sen. Mike Michot, R-Lafayette, recently said it could be time to save funds by reconsidering the 2001 change of LSU Alexandria from a two-year institution to a four-year institution — Zewe said the System is “absolutely” planning on maintaining all System campuses.”The investment at LSU over the last 10 years has been far greater,” said Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope. “We should try to preserve what we have purchased.”Cope said simply consolidating colleges and departments within one institution is not enough. He said consolidating LSU at Alexandria and LSU at Eunice is a realistic possibility that would save funds and needs to be discussed. “Part of the problem is with the Board of Regents,” Cope said. “They do not seem to be doing anything to encourage that kind of consolidation.” Some — like State House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown — want to evaluate all higher education systems in Louisiana which he said may be spread too thin — an idea Zewe said the System is open to discussing.The cuts to state funding for higher education are $219 million — or 15 percent — only after including nearly $219 million in federal “stimulus” money. Without the federal money, spending could’ve been cut by more than $400 million. But the funds are only good for about two years, meaning higher education’s budget situation may be significantly worse come 2012. Jindal is not proposing the use of money from the state’s “rainy day” fund to supplement budget cuts. “The optimist in me says [the cuts] are going to get better,” Richardson said. “But there is so much left to discuss.”The Legislative session starts April 27, and the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget will meet Friday to discuss, in detail, the proposed cuts to higher education. —-Contact Kyle Bove at [email protected]