This Week at the Statehouse – Week 3

The Senate Appropriations Committee adopted the fiscal year (FY) 18 de-appropriations budget bill this Thursday on a party-line vote of 13-8. Senate File 2117 provides deeper cuts to the current fiscal year state budget than proposed by Governor Reynolds. The bill can be found here. The Board of Regents is registered against the bill.

For the three universities, the bill cuts a total of $19.3 million for the remaining five months of the fiscal year (which ends June 30, 2018): $8.7 million from the University of Iowa, $6.9 million from Iowa State University and $3.7 million from UNI. In Governor Reynolds proposed budget, she supports the Board of Regents recommendation that UNI be held harmless from any budget rescissions in FY 18.

The full Senate may vote on the bill as early as Tuesday, January 30th. The House of Representatives still needs to release and vote on its own set of FY 18 recommendations. There is a House Appropriations Committee meeting scheduled next Monday afternoon, and we may find out their proposal at that time. Any differences between the House and Senate must be reconciled from both chambers before the final legislation would then be sent to the Governor for consideration.

Here is the statement from Board of Regents Executive Director Mark Braun on the deep cuts contained in the Senate Proposed FY 18 reductions bill:

While the Board understands the state’s current fiscal situation, we are hopeful that the General Assembly and Governor will continue to work with the Board and public universities to significantly lessen these proposed reductions.

As the second semester is already underway, these severe cuts for FY2018 would cause disruptions on our campuses. We will work to minimize the impact on students.

The Board continues to support and will advocate for its appropriation request for FY2019, which includes $12 million in resident undergraduate financial aid. The state of Iowa ranks last in the nation in need-based financial aid to public university students.

As the state of Iowa is focusing on high-demand jobs, degree attainment, and the biosciences economy, cutting the public universities to this degree goes in the opposite direction of achieving these goals. The public universities are key drivers in all three of these areas and are critical to the future economic success of our state.

Upcoming Presentations at the State Capitol:

January 31 – UNI’s Business and Community Services will present our economic development programs and budget request to the Economic Development Budget Subcommittee

January 31 – UNI and the other Regents institutions will present our capital budget requests to the Transportation, Infrastructure and Capitals Budget Subcommittee

February 6 – UNI’s Business and Community Services will present our small business assistance and rural economic development assistance programs to the House Economic Growth Committee

February 14 – President Nook will present UNI’s budget requests to the Education Budget Subcommittee

February 19 – #UNIDay2018 at the Capitol! Check out our tweets at @nipanthercaucus

As always, if you have any questions contact UNI Governmental Relations at mary.braun@uni.edu or call 319-273-6144.