No matter which way it’s cut, the nearly $50 million budget reduction expected for next fiscal year will severely damage Louisiana’s flagship university, Chancellor Michael Martin emphasized Tuesday. The University is busy drafting its budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year in preparation for the House Appropriations Committee meeting on April 21. The tentative budget will be submitted to the LSU System for review later this week. Last week, the Board of Regents allocated the anticipated $219 million cut to higher education state funding to each of the four university systems. According to the Board, the LSU System is set to take a cut of about $102 million if Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposed state spending budget is approved by the Legislature, whose session starts April 27. That cut would mean about a $45 million reduction for the System’s main campus in Baton Rouge. System President John Lombardi declined an interview request. Martin said drafting a realistic budget is tricky.”Right now, we’re trying to determine the degree of specificity that sends the message of how serious this could be, while trying not to do unnecessary harm to the institution’s reputation, to the livelihoods and comfort level of the very good people who work here,” Martin said.  Martin said LSU System officials discussed with him their policy for enforcing furloughs — temporary, unpaid leaves of absence — and layoffs for professional and civil service staff. He said it is mathematically impossible to try and balance the budget “on the back of the staff.” “This is bigger than just the notion that $50 million can be squeezed out of the people easiest, in a legalistic sense, to let go,” Martin said. Martin said the University has constructed more than nine different budget scenarios that blend different ideas and methodologies.”It’s all a very peculiar dance,” Martin said. “And we’re still trying to figure out the steps.” Reducing the overall cut to higher education in the state while seriously planning for a cut as large as $50 million is Martin’s goal right now, he said. Martin said he has been through several budget cut processes at other universities, but then he was always able to have an idea of “what the world was supposed to look like at the end.””I have no idea what we’re trying to get to at the end other than just to cut the budget,” Martin said. “What is it that, under these circumstances, people want higher education to be when this is all done?”Martin said state legislators need to think about what they want the state of higher education to be in Louisiana after these budget cuts. And under these circumstances, the state’s flagship institution is set to be damaged badly, he said. “We will try to chart our course based on our values and principles and react in that regard,” Martin said. “Knowing that what we want to have come out the other end, in the process, is a flagship intact and prepared to sail again when the seas are flatter.”—-Contact Kyle Bove at [email protected]