Panel will fight for public higher ed funding

Sen. Greg Bell and Rep. Kory Holdaway must now "scream and shout" for at least $65 million needed to fund public higher education's top priorities.

Bell, R-Fruit Heights, and Holdaway, R-Taylorsville, are co-chairmen of the Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee, which Monday ignored estimates that say only $23.5 million may be available for higher education's "hot spots."

The committee was unanimous in recommending funding for all but about $12.5 million of requests for top priorities from the Utah System of Higher Education, the Utah Education Network and the Utah College of Applied Technology.

Bell and the rest of the committee didn't have the will to slice up "modest" budget requests by the State Board of Regents, which oversees public higher education.

"This is horrible," Bell said near the start of the committee meeting. "You're cutting up your children."

For starters, those "children," or priorities, include recommendations by the committee for more than $3.5 million to fund the retention of faculty and staff throughout USHE, UEN and UCAT.

Then there's $4.7 million recommended for operation and maintenance costs and $5 million for fuel and power. Regents requested that USHE get $15.6 million just for fuel and power.

The reality is that USHE, UEN and UCAT may only get about $12 million out of more than $45 million in requests just for ongoing money. That may mean things like grants, scholarships, the ongoing nursing and engineering initiatives and a host of other priorities get only a chunk of one-time money or nothing from the state.

Utah Commissioner of Higher Education Rich Kendell said it may come down to whether key lawmakers favor $85 million in funding for roads or breaking off chunks of that for other areas, namely higher education.

"That is the fight," Kendell said after the meeting.

For Utah's nine public institutions and UCAT, the fight will be to hold off another hefty tuition increase, which could come if the state does not have enough money to fund pay raises for faculty and staff and costs associated with operations and maintenance, fuel and power.

"We will fight, kick and scream and shout," Bell told committee members. He has a presentation ready for lawmakers to start drumming up support for higher education.

It may be a short fight if what Rep. David Clark says holds true: that there may not even be another $10 million over the $23.5 million that is estimated to be available for higher education. Clark, R-Santa Clara, is vice chairman of the Executive Appropriations Committee, which still needs to put its stamp on higher education requests.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com