University of Arkansas System officials on Wednesday largely steered clear of making explicit pleas to state lawmakers for more general revenue in the next fiscal year, although they’ve submitted requests seeking more state money.
Legislators and Gov. Mike Beebe are expected to spend the 2013 legislative session figuring out how to fix a projected shortfall of about $350 million in the state’s Medicaid program, while increasing funding by $56.6 million to $78.4 million for the state’s public schools.
The state’s higher-education institutions have submitted a request for $136.9 million more in general revenue in fiscal 2014.
“I know that we as a state have a number of priorities to consider in allocating our resources with challenges such as Medicaid, prisons, adequacy funding in K-12 education, among many others,” UA System President Donald Bobbitt told about 20 lawmakers during a meeting of the Legislative Council and Joint Budget Committee.
The UA System’s institutions “do everything that we can to take our existing resources and stretch them as far as we can,” he said.
“Despite all our efforts, state funding has declined as a proportion of our education and general budgets duein large part to enrollment increases,” Bobbitt said.
“In this environment, it is my belief that we must continue to do more with less,” he said.
Bobbitt said the UA System is committed to doing its part to reach Beebe’s goal of doubling the number of Arkansans with college degrees by 2025, but it can’t reach that goal without rethinking many of the ways its schools have traditionally operated.
He said he favors using technology to reach more students and keep costs down, and the system’s five four-year universities are working on initiatives aimed at increasing their student retention rates.
“As you continue to grapple with the very difficult decisions regarding our state’s finances, I ask that you consider higher education for its role in securing abright future for the people of Arkansas,” Bobbitt said.
University of Arkansas at Fayetteville Chancellor G. David Gearhart told lawmakers that university officials “would be happy to answer any questions you have whatsoever except about our football team,” which drew laughter.
The Razorback football team has won three games and lost five, after starting the season ranked among the top 10 teams in the nation.
In response to a queryfrom Rep. Johnnie Roebuck, D-Arkadelphia, Gearhart said UA plans to purchase the basement and first and second floors of the old First National Bank building in Fayetteville for $2.7 million. It’ll be used primarily to house the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History.
Reserve funds and rents paid by private businesses in the building will be used to pay for the building, he said.
Rep. Kelley Linck, R-Flippin, asked Gearhart about the university’s request for $500,000 in general revenue for the Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs in fiscal 2014.
Gearhart said the request for the gardens, which he described as having a multimillion-dollar effect on the state’s economy, comes after the university has put $300,000 to $400,000 a year to cover part of the costs of the gardens.
Afterward, Gearhart saidhe hopes UA receives more state general revenue in fiscal 2014 from the 2013 Legislature.
“We know times are tough, and we thought it was better to let them ask the questions and not make a huge pitch. They know what we are after and what we need,” he said.
“We have made all those pitches before, so we just thought coming in and doing it again here is probably not appropriate,” Gearhart said.
Asked whether he’s worried about the possibility of state budget cuts in the 2013 session, Bobbitt said in an interview, “I think you always have to be worried about that.
“I think that we are in a business. We have to justify our existence all the time,” he said.
University of Arkansas at Little Rock Chancellor Joel Anderson said UALR’s Nanotechnology Center has accomplished “a great deal, but one of our main objectives during the next legislative session will be to achieve ongoing [state] support” for it.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 11/01/2012