Legislative Update January 19, 2011

The Higher Education Appropropriations Subcommittee met on January 19, 2011 to discuss the impact of looming budget cuts.  Commissioner William Sederburg outlined the "serious negative impacts" of the proposed 7% cut, especially on top of the recent 12% cut.  Enrollment is up 7% this year and is up 22% over the past few years, illustrating that even holding higher education harmless would still have the impact of a budget cut.  President Stan Albrecht of Utah State University, President Matthew Holland of Utah Valley University and President Stephen Nadauld of Dixie State College discussed the impact of budget cuts on research universities, regional universities and community colleges. 

A 7% reduction in ongoing state funds for UALC would equal $186,300 out of the $2,660,900 budgeted.  Fiscal analyst Spencer Pratt put forward a list of other options for eliminating the structural deficit in higher education, not as a solution, but as a place to start discussions.  Ten Board of Regents line items were mentioned as possible cuts for saving state funds, but UALC was not among them.  All budget documents and committee discussions can be viewed at:
 http://le.utah.gov/ASP/Interim/Commit.asp?Year=2011&Com=APPHED