Funding bleak for Iowa universities

The governor's proposal this week to lower spending in the 2018 and 2019 budget years portends more bad news for Iowa's public universities, prompting one regent who long has advocated for student access and affordability to acknowledge 'everything is on the table.”

'I don't think there's any other way to frame it, other than it's going to be difficult,” regent Larry McKibben said.

One day earlier - after Iowa's Revenue Estimating Conference lowered general fund revenue estimates - Gov. Terry Branstad scaled back his suggested spending plan for the coming fiscal year by $173.3 million. He also proposed to reduce spending in the 2019 budget year by $103.3 million from his earlier recommendation.

For Iowa's public universities, the governor's revised plan not only would leave in place steep cuts to their base funding rolled out halfway through the current budget year, it would reject the Board of Regents' request for a 2 percent funding increase in each of the next two years.

Instead, the proposal would further decrease state support for Iowa's public universities in the 2018 budget year and up it only slightly in 2019 - still leaving it far below funding levels in 2016 and at the start of 2017.

Specifically, the regents received $595.2 million in state appropriations in the 2016 budget year and were promised $601.5 million for the 2017 budget year ending June 30. But taking the biggest dollar hit of any agency in the state, the board got midyear funding cuts bringing the 2017 total down to $580.7 million.

Branstad initially recommended increasing state support for the regents to $587.2 in the 2018 year - still below 2016 levels but better than the revised 2017 total.

But his new recommendations propose giving the regents $578.3 million in 2018 - a dip below the already-slashed 2017 level.

His 2019 proposal of $589 million would represent an increase, although it still would be below the regents funding level in 2016.

For the regent universities, the governor's proposal would mean a $10.6 million drop below funding levels at the start of the 2017 budget year for the University of Iowa; a $10.1 million decrease for Iowa State University; and a $3.1 million dip in for the University of Northern Iowa.

'This just exacerbates the difficulty that we've had coming out of the cuts in the midyear and the changes we've had to make,” said McKibben, who will become one of the senior regents this spring when terms end for President Bruce Rastetter and President Pro Tem Katie Mulholland.

UI, ISU and UNI administrators have grappled with the funding cuts for months. UI President Bruce Harreld even took steps to eliminate already-promised scholarship awards, although he reversed course after students filed lawsuits.

Instead, the UI is relying on savings from students who didn't meet requirements for their scholarships, campuswide efficiencies and freed-up money from flood-related work.

IU and UNI administrators have said they'll delay deferred maintenance, cut down on non-essential costs and look for more efficiencies.

None of the universities has resorted to layoffs, although Harreld has made a strong push for steep tuition increases in coming years.

McKibben said he'd consider tuition hikes.

'I don't think I'm going to have a choice,” he said. 'We want to keep the high level of quality of our three universities. We went to keep high-level staff and high-level researchers and faculty. And the students that come there, to our universities, expect that.”

Noting Branstad's recommendations are just that - recommendations - McKibben said he'll be urging lawmakers to soften the blow.

Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, agreed that would be ideal, but said he isn't hopeful because Republicans control both legislative chambers.

'I don't see vast changes,” he said. 'It sure does seem like they are cutting a lot of really important programs that need to be funded. … This is not the way to have the state move forward.”

The governor's revised spending plan also decreases support for community colleges, and eliminates $8.7 million set aside for a regents-based 'skilled worker job creation fund.”

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, said ditching the programs seems counter to one of the state's pressing needs - a skilled workforce.

'The largest present problem we have from Iowa businesses is the need for skilled workers,” he said. 'To cut the money that is focused on, producing more skilled workers, doesn't make sense. So I would expect that there's going to be a conversation about that.”

Bolkcom said he'd like to see the governor review his 'tax giveaways to large corporations.”

'It's time for our most profitable corporations that have benefitted from Branstad-Reynolds record tax giveaways to sacrifice with every other working Iowan,” he said.