Despite no initial fiscal year cut, this semester saw the University lose money from a mid-year cut and shuffled federal funds.
 
During the last legislative session, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration and the Louisiana Legislature passed a budget with no initial cuts for the new fiscal year, which started in July.
 
But lower-than-estimated state revenues caused a $108 million gap in the state’s budget, forcing the Jindal administration to cut funds part-way through the fiscal year.
 
LSU administrators originally submitted a plan to cut $2.2 million from the University. But the next week the state suddenly decided to spare cuts to research institutions at Pennington Biomedical Research Center and the LSU AgCenter, passing the budget burden onto teaching institutions — including LSU.
 
The next Monday, administrators were told the cut had grown from $2.2 million to $5.1 million.
 
“I am glad that Pennington and the AgCenter have been helped,” said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost John Hamilton in a news release. “But I am disappointed that this cut is proportionally much higher for the LSU System — and LSU — than for other higher education institutions in the state. That is unfair to our students.”
 
To make the cuts, funding for the Academic Center for Student Athletes moved from the University to the Athletic Department. The University also changed the source of funding for graduate programs.
 
The School of Veterinary Sciences also lost money for the Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab and the Arbovirus Testing Program. Those programs provide research and diagnoses of animal-related human diseases including West Nile virus, encephalitis and rabies.
 
The remaining deficit will be met using tuition money from an increased freshman class.
 
The 5,400 new students enrolled this semester make up the second-largest incoming class in school history, according to the Office of Budget and Planning.
 
Administrators said the increased tuition funds would have paid for reductions in class sizes, increased teacher support and adding counseling and tutoring hours to accommodate the increased number of students, but were instead eaten up by the cut.
 
The University also possibly lost money when an attempt by the Jindal administration to shuffle $146.5 million in federal education funds into next year’s higher education budget was hijacked by state legislators last month.
 
The money in question comes from a $26 billion “EduJobs” bill passed by Congress in August. The bill includes $10 billion for preserving education jobs.
 
The Jindal administration proposed using Louisiana’s entire $146.5 million share of the bill to help plug a projected $1.6 billion hole in the state budget for fiscal year 2012.
 
Administration officials argued the state’s primary and secondary education system has been protected from all cuts, so saving the money for the state’s coming fiscal crisis was fiscally responsible.
 
The Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget, however, axed the Jindal plan, instead routing $79 million to the state’s primary and secondary schools for this fiscal year — leaving only the minimum $68 million to go to higher education next year.
 
K-12 administrators argued the money was theirs and was necessary to pay for a larger-than-expected number of students.
 
The Legislature’s reversal apparently surprised Jindal’s commissioner of administration, Paul Rainwater. Rainwater tried to remove the proposal once it became obvious it would fail but was told by Rep. Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro, that it was too late in the process.
 
The Legislature’s move was widely viewed as a rebuke of the administration.
 
Next semester will mark the most important political maneuvering that will determine just how bad future cuts to higher education will be.
 
The state faces a “cliff year” as it tries to fill a $1.6 billion budget hole for the next fiscal year.
 
The first concrete budget proposal aimed at filling that hole that affects higher education is a plan proposed by LSU System President John Lombardi at a Dec. 1 Board of Regents meeting.
 
The plan includes significantly increased costs for college students in the form of tuition increases, “tuition stabilization” surcharges and removing the 12-hour full time cap on tuition costs.
 
The plan is only a suggestion for the Jindal administration and the state Legislature, who actually make the budget.
 
Gov. Jindal’s administration will propose a preliminary budget in February of next year. That budget then goes to the Legislature, who will tweak it and finally pass it in June.
 
 
 
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Contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]