Economic turmoil curtails A&M funding

By: By Rolando Garcia

Posted: 1/14/03

With a $10 billion state budget shortfall looming, additional funding for Texas A&M is out of the question, a leading state legislator said, and the University will be lucky to escape budget cuts.

"There won't be an increase, I'll tell you that," state Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said last week from his office at the state capitol in Austin.

The Texas legislature, which convenes today, must grapple with a huge budget deficit and a political environment that makes large tax increases unlikely -- meaning state agencies, including public colleges and universities, may have to make do with less.

A&M got almost $290 million from the state for the 2002 fiscal year, covering more than one-third of the University's $808 million annual budget.

The tight budget situation has not made A&M officials bashful. They are asking for a more than 10 percent increase from last year's appropriation. According to requests filed this year, the University is asking for $321 million from the state, much of it to keep up with the growth in enrollment, said Michael O'Quinn, A&M's vice president for governmental affairs. O'Quinn said A&M will make its case to the legislature and hope for the best.

"It doesn't look good right now, but we believe in our cause. Higher education is important to Texas, and the legislature understands that," he said.

A&M officials are also asking legislators to change the way public universities are funded. Currently, system, most funding is distributed by a complex set of formulas that takes into account factors such as how many credit hours a university offers.

However, additional funds are available only to selected schools, partially to offset the Permanent University Fund. The fund's primary beneficiaries are A&M and the University of Texas. Distributing all funds through the formulas would be a more equitable system, O'Quinn said, and would compensate the schools with the highest enrollment growth.

University of Texas System Chancellor Mark Yudof is urging legislators to deregulate tuition rates, which would remove caps on tuition and allow the board of regents to raise tuition without legislative approval. Also, as part of the proposal, UT would waive tuition for students from low-income families. This measure would create a system similar to private institutions that aid poor students and charge full tuition for all others.

"UT just wants to be a private university," Ogden said.

O'Quinn said tuition deregulation is not currently a top priority for A&M, but the University may lobby for it as a funding alternative if the legislature cannot adequately provide for A&M's needs.

However, Ogden said he opposes deregulating tuition, except for summer terms. If tuition caps were removed and schools raised their tuition, the legislature would likely cut funding by an amount equal to the increased tuition revenue.

"When it's all over, the universities won't have more money. It will just cost more to go there," Ogden said.

Opposition to tuition deregulation is bipartisan. State Rep. Irma Rangel, D-Kingsville, and chairwoman of the House Higher Education Committee, has announced her opposition to deregulating even summer term tuition.

State Rep. Fred Brown, R-College Station, plans to file legislation that would deregulate summer tuition.

Despite the bleak fiscal outlook for A&M, O'Quinn said there is a possibility the situation might improve. When the state comptroller announces final revenue projections later in the session, the numbers might reflect an improved economy and reduce the size of the budget deficit, O'Quinn said.

"We can just hope it all works out," O'Quinn said.