State budget cuts announced late Thursday morning may affect Crowder College.
The state budget started out this year with $13 million for maintenance, repairs, replacements and improvements at community colleges, but faced a $5 million cut less than a week before the start
of the 2010 fiscal year.
The funds, Crowder President Dr. Alan Marble said, were new money.
“We’re glad to have $8 million dollars in community college maintenance and repair,” Marble said. “That’s $8 million more than we had last year.”
The state has not yet issued directives on how the money may be spent and Marble has not been notified as to the amount Crowder will land from the budgeted funds.
Board of trustees members discussed repairs and improvements to the campus yesterday including the possibility of tying existing buildings into the geothermal field once it is built and making them more energy efficient.
Gov. Jay Nixon announced $105 million in line-item vetoes and an additional $325 million of restricted spending, cuts culled from the state budget sent to Nixon by the state legislators.
The legislative budget, Nixon said, was based on revenue estimates from January.
“Clearly the economy has not performed up to those expectations in the last six months,” Nixon said.
Line-item vetoes included $24.7 million for interoperability, part of the money set aside for rebuilding an emergency responder radio system and $12.6 million for ethanol funding in 2012 and 2013. The budget funds only the 2010 and 2011 expenditures. A $10 million highway interchange project in Jefferson City was also vetoed.
“This is a worthwhile project,” Nixon said. “But it should be funded by highway funds, not by the funding source provided.”
Restricted funds include $60 million in what Nixon termed “cuts to state bureaucracy.” The legislative budget trimmed 1,244 state positions and Nixon promised to cut 200 more.
Construction projects at Missouri State and Truman State universities also fell under the restricted funds portion of the budget.
“This near record amount of line item vetoes was not made lightly,” Nixon said. “These fiscally responsible steps are necessary to ensure that Missourians have a government we can afford with out raising taxes and without sacrificing our shared priorities of education, healthcare and jobs.”
Nixon froze an additional $325 million of budgeted expenditures, which could be released later if state finances improve.
The Legislature passed a $23 billion operating budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, plus a two-year, $600 million capital improvements bill that includes various projects funded with federal stimulus money.
Four-fifths of Nixon’s spending reductions came from the capital improvements bill. By committing less stimulus money upfront for construction projects, Nixon is reserving the money for potential budget gaps later in the 2010 fiscal year or in 2011.
The Republican chairmen of the House and Senate budget committees concurred Thursday that spending reductions were necessary because of the economic recession, though they took issue with some of the specific programs targeted by Nixon.
“Circumstances are what they are, and the dollars available are what they are: They won’t accommodate the full budget we projected,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, told the Associated Press.
The cuts to the 2010 budget passed by legislators were necessary because individual income taxes, which make up a significant portion of the budget, have fallen short of expectations.
The line-item vetoes include a nearly one-fifth reduction in the money available for a new emergency responder radio system, which Nixon said still would be adequate to improve communications for the highway patrol and other agencies.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. —
