Great example of cutting thru the BS of state budget "cuts"

Parents Forum
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<p>"What a thoroughly shoddy analysis! The numbers Prof. Lazowska seems to be referencing can be found here: <a href="http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/budget/lbns/2009he.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/budget/lbns/2009he.pdf&lt;/a>. Go to page 281. What we see there is original 2007-09 General Fund expenditure authority of $792 million. We see $214 million of "cuts" but this is from the "2009-11 Maintenance Level" of $834 million. However, you will note (pg 278) that enrollment is expected to DECREASE by 1,980 FTE students next year. So there's the old shell game - "cuts" from an inflated "current services" budget are made to seem much more drastic than they actually are.</p>

<p>Taking the 2009 supplemental into account, the General Fund support for UW was $775.6 million in the 2007-2009 biennium. GF support for 2009-11 is scheduled to be $621.1 million, a cut of $154.5 million or 20%. However, as the professor points out, we've got an additional $90 million in tuition plus an additional $25 million in stimulus funds. I don't see the other $43 million he referenced for benefit increases. But those three items total $158 million, actually more than making up for the decrease in general fund dollars.</p>

<p>Now look to the bottom line: total all-sources spending authority for UW is $4,060,644,000 for 2007-09. It is $4,278,377,000 for 2009-11. Yeah, a 5.4% INCREASE in actual dollars spent, in a deflationary environment, to educate fewer students. Count me unconvinced that the UW is in a dire funding emergency. Everyone knows that higher education spending has consistently grown beyond the inflation rate for decades, and this budget just extends the streak. Time for some re-engineering down at Montlake.</p>

<p>— VinceInSeattle </p>

<p>This trenchant analysis was in response to this article using standard college admin three card monty analysis.</p>

<p>How</a> budget cuts short-changed the UW</p>

<p>I would LOVE to see a similar analysis of the UC budget "cuts".</p>

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<p>barrons - Maddening yes, but old news. Rule #1 for institutions … “Preserve the Institution.”</p>

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<p>That’s really interesting because in my state, our governor likes to appear that he’s actually making <em>smaller</em> cuts than he actually is. He’ll state that he’s making a mid year budget cut of less than x% of the total means of finance of the budget when that really equates to a much, much larger % cut to the state general fund amount. People here get angry when higher ed gets cuts so the gov wants to appear as though he isn’t dismantling our higher ed system, while at the same time talking about the need to downsize government. Shoot me now please.</p>

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<p>It’s not his fault. People don’t want to pay taxes, don’t want to borrow money, but they don’t want the government to cut anything or reform anything. It’s like they think the money comes from Mars or the people who work at higher ed institutions and government agencies are slaves or something.</p>