At the same time higher education officials unveiled their plan Tuesday to fill a $437 million hole in state funding, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s top staffer told a University political communication class that filling the state’s “funding gap” was “on the level of Hurricane Katrina and the oil spill” — and the center of his administration’s attention.
Jindal’s Chief of Staff Timmy Teepell acknowledged the difficulties the administration will face as it tries to create a budget to account for a gaping $1.6 billion state deficit projected for the next fiscal year.
“We’re faced with an economic downturn that’s affected the whole world,” he said.
Teepell said the governor’s budget will have to make some painful cuts, but he believed a budget that “moved the state forward” was still possible.
Teepell said the No. 1 budget priority was keeping jobs in the state.
“In times of economic uncertainty, you don’t want to do anything that will force businessmen, force companies to say, ‘We need to leave the state,'” he said. “We need to make sure as many citizens as possible can realize the American dream.”
To that end, Teepell said economic development was paramount.
“A lot of people have criticized us for obsessing over it, but it’s essential,” he said.
Teepell also acknowledged higher education should play an important role.
“Obviously higher ed is critical to the future of the state,” he said.
Teepell said recent criticism of the administration’s higher education policies is “to be expected.”
“Because the process is long, it lends itself to fear,” he said. “People tend to assume the worst.”
Teepell said the administration has been waiting until budget “crunch time” to focus on fixing higher education.
“The problem with political capital is that, if you use it up in between these big challenges, you don’t have it when these big things come up,” he said.
Teepell said the administration continues to support revising the state’s budget system so higher education and health care bear less severe cuts.
“We’ve pushed this the last two years and lost,” he said.
Teepell said it was “too early to tell” if the administration would be more successful in pushing such a proposal through the Legislature.
Teepell also said the administration wanted to push for a higher education funding formula that would focus more heavily on graduation rates. Such a revision would help the University, which has far higher rates than the rest of the state.
“Right now it’s more based on butts in seats,” he joked. “We want the formula to be more based on performance.”
 
Read: Tuition hikes headline higher ed officials’ budget cut plan
—-
Contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]