Monday messages

The State Budget

Dear Colleagues:

Last week Governor Graves took the unusual step of describing, before Christmas, the fiscal year 2003 State budget that he will submit to the legislature on January 14, 2002.

That budget, as required by law, will be a balanced budget. However, in order to balance the state's budget, the Governor must eliminate a $426 million gap between state revenues and state expenditures. Interestingly, Governor Graves said he did not support the budget he plans to submit, and might not even sign it if the legislature passed such a budget. He also said he plans to propose tax increases to avoid the some of the cuts, but not all of them.

The Governor's budget affects all agencies of government, including both K-12 education and colleges and universities. It also eliminates nine highway projects and four minimum-security correctional facilities. It proposes no salary or OOE increases.

What will be the impact of this budget on KU? The State Budget Office has informed KU that the 2003 budget would mean a 3.94% budget cut for the university. That totals $5,464,296. To this figure, however, must be added the annualization of the salary increase committed to you for this fiscal year, 2002. That amount totals $1,364,279. (If it were not added, your base salary would decline by 1.5% for FY 2003.)

The University's contribution to your health insurance benefits has increased 26%, and that funding is not in the budget either. As a result, $2,229,435 would be added to the budget cut. There are also a few minor benefit issues that are mandated but not funded. When it is all added together, the university faces a potential total reduction for FY 2003 of 9.7 million dollars. Obviously, we hope it will not reach this figure, but at this point we have to think about what would need to be eliminated in case it did.

I have asked Provost Dave Shulenburger and EVC Don Hagen to do the following:
1) Make contingency plans for up to a 2% rescission in FY 2002.
2) Make contingency plans for up to a 5% budget cut in FY 2003.
(A rescission simply means a budget cut in the current fiscal year, FY 2002; a budget cut refers to the upcoming fiscal year, FY 2003.)

Dr. Shulenburger and Dr. Hagen have contacted Deans and Directors to begin this process. You may be asked for your help and ideas. You should also feel free to e-mail your ideas directly to your Dean or Director, or Dr. Shulenburger, Dr. Hagen, or me.

This budget crisis will generate a great deal of public comment, and events are likely to shift on a day-to-day basis once the legislature convenes. The University will be working very hard throughout the legislative session to convince lawmakers that KU is too valuable an asset to the economy and culture of the state to be so severely cut. We will do everything possible to preserve our critical functions-to educate, to do research, to serve Kansans.

I wanted you to know the severity of the situation we face, and why we need your help to weather this storm. We will communicate with you on a regular basis so that you know what is going on. And we will try to answer any questions you may have as the situation unfolds.

It is important that we keep perspective in the midst of these difficulties. KU is too great a university to be brought to its knees by a budget cut of this magnitude, even if it is one of the most severe in the history of the university. Even if we were cut 5%, we would still have 95% of our budget intact. We will survive, and we will not compromise KU's standards or its goals. We will, however, face a difficult time over the next 18-24 months. It will be essential that we preserve KU's greatest strengths-the human relationships between its faculty, staff, and students-during this time. As the holidays approach, it is a time to give thanks for the year's blessings, and also let others know how much you appreciate them.