Deeper budget cuts loom on the horizon for Iowa State and the other Regent institutions.

“The legislature is scheduled to convene in a special session Tuesday to try to balance the state budget,” said John McCarroll, director of university relations.

The legislature is expected to vote on a GOP proposal that would cut $2.35 million in operating funds dedicated to ISU’s economic development programs, $1 million for sustainable agriculture and $8 million for salary adjustments, McCarroll said. This would eliminate an additional $11.35 million from ISU’s funding.

The cuts would require Iowa State to reduce salaries by the equivalent of 12 1/2 days, lay off employees or reallocate funds to pay for salary increases mandated by the state. It would all but shut down the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, McCarroll said.

The proposed cuts would likely force several research centers to close and would limit the amount of technical assistance the Institute for Physical Research and Technology is able to give to Iowa companies.

“Based on the appropriations bills the governor signed into law earlier this month – compared to when this budget year started July 1 of 2001 – we will have $26.3 million less,” McCarroll said. “It appears now that there’s a good possibility we’ll lose an additional $11.35 million.”

McCarroll said that based on the level of funding approved by the governor, the amount of appropriations would be similar to that of 1998.

“We all understand the state has budget problems. We all understand the difficulty legislators and the governor face,” McCarroll said. “What we’re trying to argue is . Iowa State University has a lot of impact on the state in terms of the economy, and this is something President Geoffroy has said many times.”

Senate Majority Leader Stewart Iverson said the cuts are not something the legislature wants to do.

“The biggest thing is not that we really wanted to do anything, but with the budget the way it is, we are $200 million short in fiscal year ’02 and $200 million short in fiscal year ’03,” Iverson said. “We have taken all the money out of the economic emergency fund and then gone into the cash reserve fund.”

Iverson said the legislature is only supposed to spend 99 percent of the expected revenue when the legislature is in session.

“For ’03 we’re actually spending 100 percent of the estimated revenue, so we don’t even have that cushion,” he said. “We took some money from the tobacco settlement fund and then we said we’re going to have to make reductions in the rest of the budget.”

Iverson said the legislature has a responsibility to all Iowans, not just the public universities.

“They expect us to run a balanced budget. They expect us to prioritize. Over the years, has government done some things that we ought to revisit? Yeah,” Iverson said.

“It is very easy to say, `well, this section shouldn’t be reduced because it is too important,’ but, you know, that’s part of our responsibility – to prioritize. I think that is the function of elected officials, and it’s not an easy decision to have to do this.

“But we also have to have a balanced budget,” he said.

Iverson said to keep taking money from one-time sources would only make the problem worse.

“Right now ’02 is over a $200 million problem, ’03 is over a $200 million problem and right now we’re looking at an ’04 budget of close to a $400 million problem,” he said.

“We’re just having to tighten our belt.”

Iverson believes the Republicans have enough votes for the bill to pass.

McCarroll said he wanted to reassure students that everyone is doing all they can to ensure that students are as little affected as possible by the cuts.

“Our top priority is making sure the students have a good experience at Iowa State,” McCarroll said. “We’ve had to make a lot of negative statements in the past year.

“But . on behalf of the University, I want to reassure students that everyone is working very hard to make sure that students this summer and students that come back this fall are going to have a very minimum impact from these budget cuts.”

McCarroll said that minimizing the effect includes making sure all the scheduled courses are offered and that classrooms are in good shape.

“It makes it more difficult when you’ve had budget cuts,” he said. “There’s only so much we can do, but I think Iowa State is working hard to make sure that even with these cuts, students are still given a good education.”