Regents seek $41 million more from state

WEST DES MOINES - The state Board of Regents will ask the Iowa Legislature next session for $621.2 million in fiscal 2013 state funding for Iowa's three state universities and two special schools.

The regents approved that request, for the operating funds of the institutions for 2012-13, at their meeting Tuesday in West Des Moines. The total operations request for the regents enterprise is an increase of just more than $41 million over the current fiscal year.

The request includes continuation of the fiscal 2012 recurring appropriations to higher education ($449 million); an incremental funding increase of 4 percent, or $18 million, to support investment in higher education and to cover expected inflation; and a request for $4 million annually for three years to help the University of Northern Iowa through budget challenges.

That cumulative $12 million would help the school after several years of state budget cuts, officials said. Because UNI has a much higher proportion of in-state students than the University of Iowa and Iowa State University do, state funding cuts have a disproportionate impact, officials said. The additional money would be added to UNI's base budget.

Restoration of $18 million in state general education funding to higher education through the request would put Iowa's public universities back to the funding level of fiscal 2011, officials said, but it still represents a cut of 21 percent from fiscal 2009 appropriation levels.

Regents President Craig Lang said higher education inflation is expected to range from 2.6 percent to 4.2 percent. The additional $18 million requested for higher education funding would help “stabilize the loss” of state funding from previous years, Lang said.

“You'd hope 4 percent is realistic, not optimistic,” he said.