Faculty and staff salary increases remain up in the air as Gov. Tom Vilsack prepares to unveil his budget proposal for the coming year.

In a letter sent Monday to faculty and staff, ISU President Gregory Geoffroy said Vilsack said he would not submit a salary request to the General Assembly this session, meaning Iowa State would not receive a state appropriation for salary increases in fiscal year 2005.

Geoffroy said Vilsack’s decision not to submit a salary request was announced late last semester.

Geoffroy said funding salary increases through internal reallocations was a possibility, but would be “challenging given our overall budget situation.”

“It’s something that we will very certainly look at as we go forward, but so much of that is going to depend on what the overall budget situation is,” he said.

Full funding of faculty and staff salaries were voiced as the top priority for the universities for the 2004-05 academic year during Board of Regents meetings last fall. Geoffroy said faculty salary increases remains important.

“Having competitive compensation for faculty and staff is clearly our highest priority,” Geoffroy said. “The excellence of the university depends on having outstanding people, and that means having competitive salaries.”

Geoffroy said while the decision means there will be no direct allocation for salaries, an increase by the state in the university’s operating budget could be used for salaries.

Monica Fischer, the governor’s press secretary, said Vilsack is requesting about $634 million for the regent universities, up $30 million from the amount requested for fiscal year 2004.

Faculty Senate President Jack Girton said there have been periods without salary increases in the past, such as the farm crisis of the 1980s. Today, Girton said Iowa State ranks last among its peer universities in faculty salaries. He said salary increases at Iowa State have been averaging about 1 or 2 percent in the past few years, low compared to other universities.

Girton said internally reallocating funds for salaries would involve eliminating positions or programs, and at this point there are no “bad” positions or programs left.

“Any kind of internal reallocation will end up weakening the university because there’s no place else to go,” Girton said.

Girton said one solution, not replacing retiring faculty, is problematic in that there’s no planning for the positions left empty.

“The other big problem [with no salary increase] is the message that it sends to the faculty that Iowa State and Iowa are not able and willing to support good people, and so this makes leaving to another university very attractive,” he said.

During his Condition of the State address Tuesday, Vilsack called for a raise in cigarette and sales taxes as a way to help fund programs, including education.

Vilsack’s budget plan is expected to be announced Friday.