Senate Budget Protects UNC

May 20, 2010 – The $19 billion budget plan approved this week by the N.C. Senate doesn’t give the University everything it wants.  But it definitely softens the cuts Gov. Beverly Perdue recommended in her proposed budget for 2010-11.

“It's hard to say that you're happy with a budget that reduces education,” said Sen. Richard Stevens, R-Wake, co-chair of the Senate's education budget subcommittee. “But it's a better budget than it was.”

The Senate budget lowers the $99 million in “management flexibility” cuts the governor recommended for the UNC system to $50 million.  It gives authority to individual campuses to raise tuition by as much as $750 to offset those cuts.  And, unlike the budget legislators adopted last year for 2010-11, it allows the dollars raised by the tuition increase to stay on campus.

The Senate budget actually would increase spending on the University system by 0.37 percent.  The Senate plan provides:

• An additional $5.6 million for growth in University enrollment for 2010-11.  In total, the Senate plan would provide $59 million to pay for 4,926 additional students at the 16 campuses.
• $8.2 million for financial aid for an additional 4,600 students systemwide who now qualify, for a total of $34.9 million in need-based aid from the state.
• $4 million, in addition to the existing $8 million, to reduce the backlog of 66 professorships that are awaiting matching funds from the Distinguished Professor Endowment Fund.
• $4 million to help finance infrastructure for the Innovation Center, the first R&D fixture at the new Carolina North campus.  The Senate proposal does not, however, provide planning money for a new School of Law at Carolina North as the University sought.
• $50 million for the University Cancer Research Fund, as originally planned in 2007.  “We are continuing North Carolina’s landmark investment in cancer research – and I think each and every one of us should be proud of that endeavor,” said Sen. Charlie Albertson, a co-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Sen. A.B. Swindell, a co-chairman of the Appropriations Committee, touted the Senate’s protection of the UNC system in the face of an $800 million shortfall.  “More than ever, education is the key to the future success of North Carolina,” Swindell said.

The process isn’t over yet, however.  The budget now goes to the state House for its consideration.