As the ink dries on Gov. Jennifer Granholm's executive order to close the state's funding gap, university presidents across Michigan are meeting with legislators today to present their case for more funding.
Granholm's executive order will propose a solution for the state's budget shortfall for this fiscal year and will be presented today by Office of the State Budget Director Mary Lannoye before a joint session of the House and Senate appropriations committees.
MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon will present the case for MSU at 10:30 a.m. today to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education at the Capitol. Simon plans to talk about MSU's contributions to Michigan's counties and cities.
Presidents of the University of Michigan and Wayne State University, the two other research universities with medical schools, also will speak to the subcommittee, Simon said.
"Higher education is being seen more as something to be paid for by students and their families than to be paid for by the state," Simon said. "That's a trend that's been continuing for a long period of time, so part of what you try to do is find a way not necessarily to correct all the past, but to change the tone for the future."
At stake is increased funding for higher education in coming years.
Granholm's first executive order was rejected in February by the Senate and passed by the House.
It was intended to solve this year's $375 million shortfall and would have cut $30 million in funding for colleges and universities for the 2005 fiscal year. It also would have given them $200 million worth of bonds during the next two years for university construction projects.
Republican legislators claimed the cuts went back on a promise Granholm made to universities that no cuts would be made to their funding if they held tuition at or below inflation. Funds allocated to higher education in 2006 will be results-driven, said Rachel Birch, legislative aide to Rep. John Stewart, R-Plymouth, who serves as chairman of the appropriations subcommittee.
"Each representative needs to know what each university has done, and by having the presidents do that, they'll be able to lay it out on the line for the House," Birch said. "It kind of gives the committee a starting point."
The funding in next year's budget is for all of the state's 15 public universities, said Michael Boulus, executive director of the President's Council, State Universities of Michigan.
The strong overarching theme of the presentations is that funding should be a priority of the state, Boulus said.
"Nobody has expressed a vision of Michigan's future that does not include strong universities, so we make a compelling case that there's a real strong investment payoff for the state to invest," he said.
University administrators hope government officials will take their concerns to heart when deciding where to cut and where to give funding.
But as for higher education's fate in the new executive order, legislators and Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd weren't releasing details on Tuesday.
"We're trying to hash out an agreement and address concerns we had with the original executive order," said Ari Adler, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, R-Wyoming. "We're close to reaching a deal."
As of Tuesday evening, Matt Resch, spokesman for Speaker of the House Craig DeRoche, R-Novi, said members of the appropriations committee still were meeting and discussing the order.
Adler said members of the appropriations committees will vote on the order today if a deal can be reached.
Rebecca McNulty can be reached at mcnult13@msu.edu. Lindsay VanHulle can be reached at vanhull3@msu.edu.
