After passing a budget Saturday that cut $143 million in funding to the university system, state legislators say they are looking to make more cuts for the 2010 fiscal year, which starts in July.
The state Legislature is looking at a $3 billion deficit for 2010, nearly twice the previous deficit.
The stimulus package currently being debated on the floor of the U.S. Senate could bring as much as $2 billion in relief, but legislators are divided on how much of it is useable.
Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said the cuts for the 2010 year would be significantly lower than the cuts for the 2009 year, but he declined to give any estimates until the stimulus legislation has passed.
“We can’t do much until we get that [funding],” he said. “We not only need to know the amounts, but if there are any strings attached.”
Kavanagh said the federal funding would help keep the cuts to the university system low.
“It is my hope that if we get the stimulus money some people projected, the cuts [to higher education] will be less,” he said.
Rep. Cloves Campbell, D-Phoenix, said he was concerned the Republican majority in the Legislature would not take all of the federal funding offered, which would force the state to either raise taxes or make drastic cuts to education.
“If we do accept it, the cuts [to the universities] will be minimal,” Campbell said. “If we don’t, a lot of things are going to go.”
Some lawmakers, including Sen. Bob Burns, R-Peoria, have said they would turn down some stimulus money if it raises state spending too far beyond revenue levels, setting the state up for another deficit. Campbell and other Democrats are strongly in favor of taking all of the money offered in the package.
Campbell added that he would like to see the universities find ways to either increase revenue or cut spending before the 2010 budget is passed, minimizing the impact of budget cuts.
“There are always places where you can trim some dollars,” Campbell said. “I’d like to see the universities step forward and say, ‘OK, we don’t need these programs right now.’”
University spokesman Virgil Renzulli said the administration is currently tied up with the 2009 budget cuts, which have resulted in furloughs for all faculty and staff and more than 500 layoffs.
The University would not wait for the Legislature to finalize the budget to make cuts or increase revenue, he said.
“We would not wait until it was too late to make a cut,” Renzulli said. “But with everybody being furloughed, and with 550-some layoffs, [cutbacks are] pretty extreme, so … we’re going to wait to see where we’re going.”
Reach the reporter at derek.quizon@asu.edu.