House set to examine bill on education appropriations

For two months, members of the House Appropriations Committee have watched as a higher education funding proposal was made by the governor. After the proposal, university officials lobbied for a larger appropriation and the Senate increased the proposal by $30 million.

And now two months of sitting on the sidelines, the House Appropriation Committee is ready to get in the game.

The Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education will begin four weeks of hearings on funding for colleges and universities in Lansing tomorrow.

Last month, the Senate passed a proposal that would increase the funding for each university by three percent - twice the increase proposed by Gov. John Engler in February.

Under this proposal, the University will receive $323,975,481 from the state, an approximate increase of $9 million from the 1997-98 fiscal year.

Hank Prince, associate director of the House Fiscal Agency, said the subcommittee will take testimony for the next four weeks and then probably will take an additional week to consider its recommendation to the full committee.

He said the House and Senate have set June 12 as their target date for the completion of all budget bills.

"I think it will be completed very close to that date," Prince said. "I don't envision any problems."

University officials from several of the state's public universities expressed concern from the outset about the funding proposal, saying it could cause program cuts and tuition increases.

Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Morris Hood (D-Detroit), who also chairs the main Appropriations Committee, said the proposal was "totally inadequate" when he first heard about the 1.5-percent Engler proposal in February. He said the proposal will be looked at and there will probably be some movement.

Kelly Chesney, a spokesperson for the Department of Management and Budget, which prepared Engler's proposal, said her office is carefully observing the appropriations process. She said she thinks Engler's original plan was fair based upon the increases universities have received over the past five years.

Each university has received an increase greater than 20 percent over the past five years, while the total rate of inflation has been close to 15 percent over the same time period, Chesney said.

Engler spokesperson John Truscott said after the Senate proposed extra money for the schools last month that legislators must be wary of giving out money they don't necessarily have.

"We have always said that if they're going to add more money in one place, they have to tell us where they're going to cut," Truscott said.

Associate Vice President for Government Relations Cynthia Wilbanks said she is pleased with the process to this point and she looks forward to the House discussion.

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