Branstad tries to revive regent’s funding model

DES MOINES - With the legislative session going into overtime with no agreement on a state budget, Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday he will 'spend a lot of time” with legislators to resolve their differences and try to persuade them to revive a new way of funding Iowa's public universities that lawmakers already rebuffed.

Republicans who control the House and Democrats in charge of the Senate are far apart on most major state budget pieces, including higher education funding. But one area of common ground is that neither likes a regents-proposed model that rewards universities, in part, for enrolling larger shares of in-state students.

Branstad told reporters he was not ready to give up on the concept.

'I would point out that the Board of Regents put tremendous time and effort into developing a new system, which hadn't been addressed for about 40 or 50 years,” he said. 'I believe that it's time that we had a performance-based system that treats all of our universities fairly.”

The GOP governor said he hoped the higher education budget would include money needed for a third year of tuition freezes for in-state undergraduates. Both chambers passed measures to do that, but each pays for it differently.

Afterword, Regents President Bruce Rastetter thanked the governor for his 'strong support” of the proposed matrix, saying Branstad 'understands that the decades-old funding model for the state's public universities is antiquated and does not reflect the unique missions and enrollment realities at each university.”

Legislators seems unswayed by the plan that ties 60 percent of state appropriations to in-state enrollment - and ends up penalizing the University of Iowa about $13 million unless lawmakers backfill it this year.

Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, said legislators are looking to fund the universities 'without all the nasty byproducts they have in their model of the three regent universities fighting among themselves, fighting with the private colleges, community colleges - upsetting the whole higher education apple cart.”

The House last week approved a higher education funding measure that would commit $977.6 million in general fund appropriations to regent universities and special schools, community colleges, workforce training efforts, private college tuition grants and other programs. The overall funding level would be $8.5 million below current levels.

Monday, majority Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee amended House File 658 with their approach to direct $1.026 billion to the higher education bill that would increase funding by nearly $40 million to state universities, community colleges, workforce development and other programs.

On a separate 13-8 party-line vote Monday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $1.904 billion health and human services budget for fiscal 2016 that is $26 million under the governor's level but seeks to boost current spending by $45.8 million.

Sen. Amanda Ragan, D-Mason City, said senators anticipate more savings from Branstad's plan to move to a Medicaid program managed by private health care providers.

Democrats also built in about $13 million to keep mental health institutes in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant operating past July 1, against Branstad's wishes.

Rep. Chuck Soderberg, R-LeMars, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said he had not had a chance to fully assess the Senate's 'monster” HHS budget that is about $100 million higher than the House GOP spending target.

Soderberg said Senate Democrats made 'very aggressive” assumption about savings from the Medicaid program, which need study.