With the 2017 Legislative session set to occur on April 10, members of University administration are looking to lawmakers for the future of TOPS and higher education funding.
University Executive Director of Policy and External Affairs Jason Droddy said going into the session, the foremost issue will be the state budget and revenue.
He said University administrators were informed of what the deficit would be for fiscal year 2017. Although the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget (JLCB) did not take action in November closing the remaining $315 million budget gap from the previous fiscal year, they are expected to act at the December meeting, according to Droddy.
“We are not going to have the luxury of sparing higher education,” Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne said in the joint budget committee meeting on Nov. 18. “I wish we did.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards announced on Nov. 18 that the expected $18 million in midyear budget cuts to higher education from FY16 would be delayed until December.
The JLCB has to grapple with the shortfall of the current fiscal year, and if revenue projections don’t improve, there will likely be additional budget cuts to higher education. However, Droddy said he is “certain they want to avoid that at all costs.”
The administration is not aware of what impact state action will have on higher education for the current fiscal year. Droddy said that while it’s likely the University will see some cuts, the Legislature will try to mitigate the effect to higher education.
The upcoming regular session is a fiscal session, meaning the Legislature will only discuss issues on taxes and revenue. The Legislature does have the ability to file five non fiscal bills, but Droddy said he’s unaware of what those bills will look like.
At the beginning of the fiscal year, the governor indicated that agencies and universities should hold off 5 percent of their budgets in anticipation of a potential shortfall. The 5 percent holdback was a “prudent financial measure,” so institutions would have funds set aside. Droddy said the JLCB indicated last month that they would prefer to find money elsewhere, though, and not have universities tap into the reserved funds.
Three things need to happen in the next legislative session, Droddy said: budget stability, restoration of TOPS and a university-state partnership for project funding.
“Universities are an arm of the government, but they also compete in a marketplace, so what we need is stability on the state side to match the stability we have on the enrollment side,” Droddy said.
The capital budget will hopefully see investments in the Studio Arts building and the last of the funding needed for the new engineering facility.
“We believe the capital outlay budget should include those projects because we have a large deferred maintenance backlog that we need to address, and we are trying to be entrepreneurial and help the state by finding donors who will put up to match the state’s dollar so our needs are not falling wholly on the state,” Droddy said.
According to the Office of Facility Services, the maintenance backlog is currently at $450 million.
University economist Jim Richardson’s Task Force on Structural Changes in Budget and Tax Policy has recommendations on tax reform and has tax bills filed to put the plan into effect, Droddy said.
While University students and their families are upset by the cuts, Droddy said he doesn’t think many have contacted their local representatives to express their dissatisfaction. He said several legislators have commented to him that they haven’t received complaints about the TOPS cuts, which will fall on students in the spring semester.
Droddy said he is confident legislators will do what is necessary to stabilize higher education funding and will try to restore TOPS because lawmakers don’t want a “brain drain,” with Louisiana students going out of state.
“By law, TOPS will remain at current levels, and some lawmakers have indicated an interest in restoring TOPS funding,” LSU President F. King Alexander said in an email. “Taxpayers have invested thousands of dollars in each child’s education and I’m sure lawmakers don’t want to see those investments go to other states due to a lack of scholarships.”
To cover the TOPS shortfall for students in the spring semester, the University would have to come up with $27 million, according to the executive director. The University has the most TOPS recipients in the state, with 14,086 students receiving award amounts.
“That [$27 million] is too large for us to bear,” Droddy said.
More than 2,000 students flooded the Capitol steps Wednesday, Feb. 24th, 2016 to rally for higher education funding.
