Mo. colleges could take smaller funding cut

In January, Southeast Missouri State University administrators were thrilled with Gov. Jay Nixon's proposal to limit budget cuts to higher education to 7 percent. On Wednesday, they were ecstatic with a state Senate plan to trim a little less.

It's a sign of the troubled economic times -- be they improving ever so slightly -- in which state institutions are operating.

Missouri's public colleges and universities would take a 4.8 percent funding cut next year under the budget plan passed by the state Senate.

Nixon's proposed cut already has been approved by the House, so the two chambers must reconcile their differences before sending a final budget plan to the governor.

Senators lessened the proposed state funding cut as part of a deal with higher education officials to soften the financial hit to students. Many institutions are planning to raise tuition next year. Southeast's board of regents is expected to take up a tuition increase, in the 4 percent to 5 percent range, in the coming months.

The institutions have talked about increasing student financial aid or reducing course fees with the additional "savings" in the Senate plan.

"If that occurs, some of that money would go to need-based aid," Southeast president Ken Dobbins said. He said there is a possibility the board of regents could minimize tuition increases. "The question would be, where would it be best used? We do know there has been a significant reduction in need-based aid."

Missouri's fiscal year 2011 budget is expected to cut nearly 60 percent of financial assistance to low-income students, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The Senate budget plan would rely on $30 million from the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority to help fund state scholarships.

The news has gotten progressively better for Missouri higher education, which once faced budget cuts as high as 20 percent amid bleak state budget projections.

In early February, Kathy Mangels, Southeast vice president for finance and administration, sounded elated over Nixon's higher ed funding proposal.

"I'm thrilled with a 7 percent budget cut," she told the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee crowd. Mangels, in her university update, said losing 15 percent of state funding would be financially equivalent to cutting operations at the university's College of Education and Kent Library.

Now Dobbins said the university is cautiously optimistic the conference committee will diminish the budget reduction further. He acknowledges it's strange to be in a position of rooting for a 4.7 percent budget cut.

"As you know, I was the CFO before I became president, and I would have never back then said, 'Boy, it would be nice to have a 7 percent reduction,'" he said. "But things happen to the economy, things happen to Missouri's state revenue."

Dobbins said the governor's budget plan, the House's support of it, and the Senate's latest proposal are recognition of the important role higher education plays in Missouri economic development.

Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, did not return a phone call from the Southeast Missourian.

mkittle@semissourian.com

388-3627

The Associated Press contributed to this report.