The Board of Regents’ appropriations requests were returned back from the governor with edits, including her recommendation that the regent institutions not receive the $1 million requested by the regents for mental health programming. 

The regents requested $40 million more than last fiscal year, where they received no increase in general funding. Reynolds recommended a $12.3 million increase, or 2.5% increase from last year. 

Iowa regent institutions requested a combined $609.03 million from the state general fund as well as $40.16 million from other funds. 

The governor recommended the regent institutions receive $582.02 million of the more-than-$600 million request, or 95.56%.

Of requests from other funds, the governor recommended that the Legislature allocate $36.66 million of the $40.16 million.

Of those amounts, requests solely for Iowa State totaled $246.56 million from the general fund and $2.8 million from other funds.

The governor recommended that Iowa State receive $236.42 million, or 95.88% of the general fund requests. 

The governor recommended Iowa State receive funding for the entire $2.8 million in other fund requests.

The Board of Regents, as a body, also requested funds from the general fund and other funds which could benefit Iowa State. 

The following requests were made on behalf of Iowa State to be paid from the general fund:

• The Future Ready Workforce request of $10 million has $2.8 million in continuing funding from FY24. The governor recommended the initiative remain at $2.8 million. 
• The $178.59 million request for the general university line item was funded at $147,682 less than what was requested at $178.45 million. 
• The Agricultural Experiment Station was recommended to receive its full request of $29.46 million. 
• Cooperative Extension was recommended to receive its full request of $18.15 million. 
• The Biosciences Innovation Ecosystem was recommended to receive its full request of $2.96 million.  

From other funds:

• An economic development request of $2.42 million was recommended to be fully allocated.
• Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute Standing of $250,000 was recommended for full allocation. 
• Iowa Nutrient Research Fund request for the Vet Diagnostic Lab of $120,000 was recommended for full allocation. 

The Future Ready Workforce initiative aims to have 70% of Iowans with education and training beyond high school by 2025. 

Higher education regent institutions requested a 3% incremental increase, which came out to $4.5 million for Iowa State’s general university funding to address increased inflationary costs for information technology hardware and software, utilities, fuel, collectively bargained wages and personnel costs, according to the regents’ request. 

Regent Abby Crow, a student member of the board, made a motion, which was approved by the board, to include a request for $1 million to address mental health needs on campuses. Reynolds returned the request, recommending the expanded mental health resource request receive no funding. 

The request was made after student leaders from Iowa’s three regent institutions showed a demand for such funding. 

Following Reynolds’ recommendations released last week, Board of Regents spokesman Josh Lehman thanked Reynolds for the support. 

“The board appreciates the continuing state appropriations our institutions receive,” Lehman said. “Iowa’s public universities are key drivers of the state’s economy and must have the proper level of resources to continue to provide the outstanding education our students deserve.”

Last year the Legislature denied all requests to increase funding from the general education requests and instead allocated $7.1 million in special purpose funding for specific programs, including $2.8 million for STEM workforce initiatives at Iowa State.

FY25 starts in July, and the final budget will likely be modified and approved by the Iowa Legislature.