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UCA, UA snatch biggest gains in Beebe's budget Friday, Jan 19, 2007 By Doug Thompson Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The University of Central Arkansas in Conway and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville would reap the biggest gains among four-year state higher education institutions in Gov. Mike Beebe's proposed budget, figures show. Beebe proposed a 10 percent increase totaling $64.4 million for higher education in the balanced budget proposal he unveiled Wednesday . Former Gov. Mike Huckabee had recommended a 17 percent increase for higher education. "But he wasn't going to have to live with that," Beebe said in an interview Thursday. "This is a real number." Linda Beene, director of the state Department of Higher Education, said Thursday chancellors of the state colleges and universities worked out the detailed budget proposals based on Beebe's figures and directives. UCA was allocated $48.2 million from the state this fiscal year. It would get an $8.8 million increase for fiscal 2008, an 18.2 percent increase, under the governor's budget. The University of Arkansas, allocated $110.8 this fiscal year, would receive an additional $9.5 million in fiscal 2008, a relatively smaller 8.6 percent increase for the larger institution. Northwest Arkansas Community College, allocated $8.9 million by the state this year, would get a $1.8 million increase - 20.5 percent - next fiscal year. Pulaski Technical College would get a 36.4 percent increase of $4.4 million next fiscal year over its current $12.2 million allocation. The proposal resulted from efforts to provide the colleges and universities was as much of their total need as possible in the budget, Beene said. Her department and college administrators have agreed on a formula that figures the total amount that would be needed for each institution to fully pay the needs of each of its departments. Officials agreed on a cost to run a department, then compared the actual appropriations in each institution to the agreed-upon cost. The difference between that cost and the actual appropriation determined each college's "need." The two-year colleges agreed, first, to a 2 percent cost-of-living increase for all schools. They then set a goal of getting enough money to support their programs at 68 percent of the hypothetical cost. Fast-growing colleges like NACC and Pulaski Tech had calculated needs trailing far behind those of other, slower-growing institutions, Beene said. For instance, Pulaski Tech had 50 percent of total needs funded and NACC had 57 percent, and therefore had the biggest gaps to make up, she said. There are 22 state-run two year colleges in Arkansas. The state's 10 four-year institutions started with a similar budgeting premise, but soon discovered that agreeing to a need-based formula would give fast-growing UCA almost all of the increase in the appropriation, Beene said. The college chancellors met and agreed to a division that gave UCA the highest percentage increase, but also gave each of the universities an increase of at least 3.6 percent, she said. Arkansas Tech University in Russellville is also a fast-growing institution, but the lag in funding for its needs was partly addressed in the last legislative session, she said. |
