With the economy in bad shape, the Executive Appropriations Committee of the Utah Legislature unanimously chose to tap into the Rainy Day Fund to help damaged areas—including higher education.
In a matter of minutes, lawmakers approved an $86 million allocation of Rainy Day Funds to cushion budget cuts across the state. Higher education received almost a quarter of the funds, obtaining $20 million.
Earlier this year, lawmakers approved cutting higher education’s base budget for the rest of this fiscal year by an additional 3 percent. The Rainy Day money makes sure it stays there, said Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Cache County.
Colleges and universities will be running on only an additional 3 percent budget cut, said Jonathan Ball, a legislative fiscal analyst.
“(The committee) considered more, but they didn’t go through with it,” Ball said.
Last year, the Rainy Day Fund was considered as an option for additional funding, but the committee decided to use the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus money instead.
However, this year, the stimulus was not available, leaving the Rainy Day Fund as the only option.
“(The stimulus) was a one-time thing,” Ball said.
Public education, which lawmakers weighed against cuts to higher education, will face a less-significant blow with a budget cut of less than a 1 percent.
What this means specifically for the U has yet to be decided, as lawmakers and higher education administrators will decide where and how to make cuts later this year.
j.bennett@chronicle.utah.edu
Michael McFall contributed to this article.
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