Illinois universities, schools waiting on lawmakers for budget

[May 12, 2010]  SPRINGFIELD -- Illinois' public universities are struggling to plan for next year after lawmakers left Springfield last week without a budget in place.

The Illinois General Assembly missed its scheduled adjournment date on Friday, and lawmakers are now planning to come back to finish in the next few weeks.

The delay is problematic for Illinois universities that need the state's final budget numbers to determine how many cuts are needed for next year.

Dan Layzell, vice president of finance and planning at Illinois State University, said times are difficult, but school officials have enough money to keep ISU running while they wait.

"We'll start receiving tuition revenue for the fall during the summer, and that will help with managing budget issues," Layzell said. "The legislature did pass a short-term borrowing bill that would allow public universities to borrow a certain amount of money against their unpaid state appropriations."

The college borrowing plan passed by lawmakers last week allows universities to borrow from a bank 75 percent of what they are owed by the state. The plan was designed to keep universities solvent while the state works out its fiscal problems.

While most universities are raising tuition in addition to borrowing money to deal with the funding shortage, Rod Sievers from Southern Illinois University said the school is unlikely to follow suit. Sievers said he expects the SIU board to rule against increases when it meets on Thursday, but he said the university will have to find somewhere else to make up the extra money.

"It probably comes with consequences," Sievers said. "There may be layoffs here at the university -- we just don't know because we don't know what the state is going to do. Some of the things that have been talked about are layoffs, some of the things that have been talked about are furloughs, but to what degree we don't know yet. Everything's kind of in limbo -- there's a lot of uncertainty right now."

Public schools at the K-12 level are also waiting on word from lawmakers before finishing their plans for the 2010-2011 school year.

Agnes Nunn, the director of business services at Springfield public schools, said school officials are waiting to hear which education programs will be cut, and they fear it may be programs for preschoolers.

"Our early childhood program, even though we were told that it was possible that program would be cut," Nunn said. "We reduced it, but we did not totally eliminate it. So that is one thing we are waiting on, because that will have an impact on our regular education fund budget."

The usual adjournment date for the legislative session is May 31. After midnight on May 31, all legislation requires a three-fifths majority vote -- instead of a simple majority -- to pass. That would prompt the need for Republican votes in the Democratic-controlled legislature.

The new fiscal year begins July 1.

[Illinois Statehouse News; By JENNIFER WESSNER]