Republican legislative leaders announced a plan to cut the current state budget by about $35 million, stripping millions of dollars in savings from the budgets of the three regent schools.More than $8 million would be pulled from Iowa State, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa, according to the plan. This would equal a loss of $3.3 million at Iowa State, $4 million at the University of Iowa and $1 million at the University of Northern Iowa.Sen. Donald Redfern, chairman of the senate education appropriations subcommittee, said the cuts are necessary now, or the state could face serious financial problems in the near future.”It’s a tough thing to do — I don’t want to do it,” said Redfern, R-Cedar Falls. “But the problem here is if you don’t face up to it now, it’s going to be much more severe in the next couple of years.”Redfern said the cuts to this year’s $4.9 billion state budget are necessary because revenues are not as high as expected.Although K-12 education is among a few areas not affected by the crunch, higher education as a whole would take a hit.In addition to the regent schools, budgets for community colleges would also be sliced by nearly $1.7 million, and the Department of Education and tuition grants to independent colleges may also be cut, Redfern said.”The regent schools are not being picked on,” he said. “The cuts were across a wide range.”Sen. Johnie Hammond, D-Ames, said the plan is “irrational” and sends a negative message to prospective students.”I said today that if I were a business thinking about moving into Iowa, I would turn around and look somewhere else because I see this bill as saying, ‘Hey folks, this is a sinking ship,'” she said. “I think students would feel the same way. I think it’s just a terrible message to send out there that we don’t have the funds to pay for any of the things that represent quality of life.”Redfern said the day-to-day operations of the regent schools should not be interrupted by the budget cut, but long-term plans may have to be delayed.”I would be a lot more scared if we get into such a big hole that we have to cut across the board 5 or 10 percent,” he said. “Just like a family or a private institution or business, when your revenue comes off projection, we have to look back at our budgets and cut back a little bit if we don’t want this problem in the future.”Hammond said Democrats are encouraging proponents of the cut to wait until the state revenue reports are issued in mid-March.”There’s no one in the Legislature who isn’t concerned about the way revenue is coming in,” she said. “What the government can do right now is send the signal to all the executive-branch people to tighten their belts. After March 14, the governor can revise his budget and come up with appropriations that seem appropriate.”Redfern said money for the Legislature to work with is limited, and the cuts have to come from somewhere.”By law, we all work from the same amount of money,” he said. “The nice thing about that is, if it gets better, we can come back with money and restore some of these cuts.”