Size of budget cut catches universities off guard

They didn't foresee the loss of $111-million, leaders say, and must now work to offset it.

By ANITA KUMAR, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 23, 2003

University leaders expected bad news from Gov. Jeb Bush's proposed state budget. But not this bad.

Cuts totaling $111-million. No new money for rising student enrollment. A requirement that universities pay for part of the popular Bright Futures scholarships. A shift of $76-million from university buildings projects to public schools.

It prompted talk Wednesday of enrollment caps, a hiring freeze and program cuts.

"We knew the governor's budget was going to be tight," said David Colburn, provost at the University of Florida, the state's largest university, which would lose $30-million. "I don't think anyone thought it was going to be this tight."

Bush's budget includes money for Bright Futures, the state's popular merit scholarship program, but it caps the amount the state will pay. Bush wants the universities to pay for the additional costs when tuition increases next year.

"The cost of the burden is shifted to institutions," said Education Commission Jim Horne. "But it's guaranteed to still be in place."

Students who couldn't afford to attend universities anymore or were turned away from them because of enrollment caps likely would flood community colleges. But they didn't receive money for increased enrollment, either.

"We're not talking about cuts in enrollment," St. Petersburg College president Carl Kuttler said. "But we're already in a pinch."

Tuition would rise 7.5 percent at the state's 11 universities and 7 percent at the state's 28 community colleges. Universities could add another 5 percent to that and increase tuition by an unlimited amount for out-of-state and graduate students.

It would be the eighth consecutive increase in tuition and fees as the state struggles with a tight budget and escalating enrollment.

"I think its unfair," said Pablo Paez, chairman of the Florida Student Association and student body president at Florida Atlantic University. "We're putting the burden back on the students and middle-class families."

Wednesday, a day after Bush unveiled the $54-billion budget in Tallahassee, university leaders were short on specifics about what would happen.

"Less money and more students," said Dan Holsenbeck, a vice president at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. "Some things will have to be cut."

Universities could consider cutting programs, capping enrollment, or laying off employees.

"We can't continue to live with $100-million cuts," said Richard Briggs, a University of Florida professor and a member of the Board of Governors, the new statewide panel that oversees higher education in Florida. "We've already pretty much cut to the bone. The math just doesn't work."

The University of North Florida in Jacksonville announced a hiring freeze Wednesday and said it would delay its plans for adding new academic programs.

"What's happening here with our state budget shortfall is more of the cost of going to college is being transferred to the student," said UNF interim president David Kline.

Bush's budget for 2003-04 is the bleakest budget proposed by the Republican governor since he first took office in 1999. He blamed the cuts on a voter-approved constitutional amendment to reduce class size in public schools that will cost billions of dollars.

"You have to focus on your fundamental goals first," said Board of Education member Julia Johnson. "We don't have the luxury to give away money like we did before."

The spending proposal for next year faces exhaustive review by lawmakers, including Senate hearings aimed at generating public opposition to his plan.

Wednesday, Bush defended his decision to cut the universities' budgets.

"What I'm saying to parents is that the best deal in the country may not be as good as it was last year, but it's still the best deal in the country," he said. University tuition in Florida is among the lowest in the country.

Education Commissioner Jim Horne said universities received the brunt of the cuts in Bush's budget because they receive less than 40 percent of their money from the state and have opportunities to recoup the losses in other ways, such as research.

But University of West Florida president John Cavanaugh said state universities already are facing a serious financial problem next year because they will be forced to begin paying for a new multimillion-dollar financial system. Recent changes in the way universities are governed in the state means they can no longer use the state system.

"On top of that, it's very serious," he said.

-- Times Staff Writer Lucy Morgan and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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