Ramsey Says Stimulus Shouldn’t Directly Affect College Tuition

Tennessee could get as much as $771 million in federal stimulus money for higher education. It’s intended for preventing or mitigating tuition hikes.

The most direct way of meeting that goal would be to put the money into the operational budgets of the state’s universities, community colleges and tech centers.

But because the funds are a one-time financial windfall, Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey would prefer a different approach.

“I’d rather use it in long-term things for higher education, like buying lab equipment, like doing capital projects, building buildings that truly is one-time, and in the long run that could hold down tuition in the fact that you built those buildings out of the stimulus money and don’t have to come back to the Board of Regents.”

Ramsey’s Speaker pro tempore, Republican Jamie Woodson, has called the stimulus funds a way of easing the transition into a leaner higher education budget. But stipulations attached to the federal money could complicate the state’s efforts to reduce spending.

WEB EXTRA

To receive the money, state funding for higher education must be at or above the level provided in the budget for fiscal year 2005-2006. This makes sense from a federal standpoint because the point of the stimulus package is to result in a funding increase, not to lessen a downward slide.

From the state’s perspective, it’s a highly complicating factor. In the last calendar year alone, the higher education budget has been trimmed twice. The budget proposal originally prepared by the administration included another deep cut of about 15%. To accept the stimulus funds, the state would have to not only abandon the planned cuts, but reverse those of the last few years, returning spending on higher education to levels that predate the economic downturn.

It should also be noted that unlike the federal government, the state is constitutionally required to balance its budget. Given the increasingly low tax revenue collections, the state government has no choice but to make substantial cuts in its overall spending.