UNIVERSITY UNCERTAIN ABOUT PAY HIKES

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- State budget woes will make it difficult to fund even small salary raises for Southeast Missouri State University employees in the 1991-92 fiscal year, two members of the university's Budget Committee said Thursday.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast, and Shelba Branscum, who chairs the Faculty Senate Compensation Committee, commented on the situation following Thursday's meeting of the Budget Committee.

"It's obviously very difficult to give any type of increase based on the governor's recommendation because there are no new state dollars," pointed out Wallhausen.

"It's going to be at least as bad as we think and maybe worse," he said.

The Compensation Committee has proposed a 4 percent across-the-board pay raise for faculty for the coming fiscal year. In addition, the proposal calls for the university to absorb an anticipated 25 percent increase in the cost of family medical insurance and tax-sheltered annuity benefits.

The Faculty Senate Wednesday unanimously endorsed the compensation proposal, which, it is estimated, would add more than $1 million to the university's personnel costs.

Branscum said, "Coming up with the 4 percent will be difficult, but as I said in the Faculty Senate meeting, I don't think it's unreasonable for us to at least recommend a cost-of-living increase.

"I say that knowing that it will be difficult and knowing that the chances are we might not get it," she said "We may very well have to negotiate and may very well wind up with a little less than that," said Branscum.

She said the proposal that the university absorb any hike in the cost of family medical and tax-sheltered annuity benefits is the Compensation Committee's top priority.

It's estimated that the increased premium would amount to about $680 per person for the fiscal year. With 397 full-time faculty members, it would cost the university just over $270,000 to absorb the increased premium expenses rather than to pass that cost on to faculty members, according to figures provided by the Compensation Committee.

On Wednesday, Branscum had indicated that the faculty salary proposal would be presented at Thursday's Budget Committee meeting. But the proposal was not introduced because the committee spent its time considering ways to raise revenue and, or, reduce operational costs, and the two other major employee groups represented on the committee were still working on their salary proposals, Branscum said.

The compensation proposals of all three employee groups will probably be submitted to the Budget Committee at the committee's next meeting March 21, Branscum said.

The Budget Committee includes faculty representatives, university administrators and representatives of the Professional Staff Council and the CTS (Clerical, Technical, Service Employees) Council. A representative of Student Government also serves on the committee.

Robert Foster, Southeast's executive vice president, chairs the committee. President Kala Stroup also serves on the committee and participates in the discussion, Wallhausen said.

Wallhausen said the Budget Committee generally makes its recommendations each year in May, after state lawmakers have approved an appropriations bill. The governor can veto and withhold funding.

Locally, the Budget Committee makes its recommendations to the university president. The Board of Regents then approves the final budget for the university, an action that generally occurs in June.

Branscum said she believes all of Southeast's employees deserve raises, not just faculty.

University officials have estimated it would cost $289,600 to increase salaries for the university's employees by 1 percent. Based on that estimate, a 4 percent hike would cost more than $1.15 million.

Wallhausen said the Budget Committee has been meeting once every two weeks since late January. About 25 committee members attended Thursday's meeting, Wallhausen said.

"What the Budget Committee did today was to continue the brain-storming session ... on ideas they (committee members) might have for cost cutting and revenue enhancement," Wallhausen said Thursday.

Committee members, he said, have suggested several, small cost-cutting moves, each amounting to a savings of less than $5,000. But, Wallhausen said, it's unlikely that any major cost-cutting moves can be made or that any untapped revenue can be found.

Throughout the 1980s, Wallhausen said, Southeast was forced to make budget cuts as the percentage of state funding declined.

"There was only one year, fiscal 1986, when we didn't have to look carefully at ways to trim the budget," he said.

Faced with tight state finances, Gov. John Ashcroft has recommended state funding for Missouri's four-year colleges and universities that basically would leave the respective institutions at current spending levels. The new fiscal year begins July 1.

Ashcroft is recommending a state appropriation for Southeast of $31.72 million. After an automatic withholding of 3 percent is taken into account, the spending level for Southeast would total $30.77 million.

That's the same level of funding Southeast is receiving in the current fiscal year as a result of almost $1.8 million in cuts in state funding for the institution, university officials have pointed out.

Southeast employs more than 1,000 people, counting full-time and part-time positions.

About 135 of the employees are union members. The custodial workers are represented by the Teamsters, while labors, mechanics, skilled crafts people and power plant employees are represented by the Operating Engineers union.

The university has annual agreements with the two unions, which are negotiated each summer, Wallhausen said.

Wallhausen said the university's personnel costs totaled about $36.3 million or roughly 60 percent of its $61.1 million budget in the 1990 fiscal year.