Iowa State balances budget through reallocation
August 21, 2006
After a lack of funding from the state, Iowa State was forced to reallocate money internally to order to make ends meet.
To balance the budget, Iowa State reallocated approximately $6.5 million.
Ellen Rasmussen, associate vice president for budget and planning, said if the budget hadn’t been reallocated internally, the university would have had to turn to individual colleges and departments to ask for funding.
Rasmussen said it would not have been “preferable” because the colleges and departments need the money for themselves.
Approximately $2 million was taken from fringe benefits, approximately $2.2 million from the Institutional Excellence Fund and approximately $2.4 million from the Building Repair Fund, she said.
“The funds that are reallocated will be used primarily to fund the salary increases for faculty and staff,” Rasmussen said.
Iowa State received approximately $4.6 million in permanent funds and approximately $3.6 million in one-time allocation money that will go toward the university’s operation expenses.
Although most people probably won’t notice the changes, Rasmussen said the budget and planning committee has started planning the budget for the next fiscal year.
“We know we still have to do salary increases and – if utility costs continue to be high – we feel it is prudent to plan for ‘what if we had to cut budgets?'” Rasmussen said.
The Iowa Board of Regents requested $40 million for the Operating Budget for the three Regents institutions from the Legislature; $11 million was received.
Gary Steinke, Regents executive director, said this is an issue that the Legislature needs to address in the next session.
“We cannot keep burdening students and their parents with the operating costs of the universities,” he said.
“Increase in tuition should go toward student programs, not relied upon to fund faculty salaries or increase costs for state staff or energy costs.”
Steinke said students are paying 97 percent more tuition than in 1991.
“We need to stop raising tuition,” Steinke said. “The Legislature needs to prioritize within the state budget to fund higher education at a level that won’t require students and parents to pick up more and more of the financial burden.”
Other resources:
