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Tuesday, 02 March 2010 15:38 |
Today, the Senate Higher Education Committee released its proposal for funding of higher education institutions and programs. The bill mirrors many of the funding reductions and changes proposed by Governor Pawlenty, including a $10.4 million reduction to the MnSCU system base budget. Also included in the Senate legislation are reductions to the state work study program, child care grants, and some policy directives to the Office of Higher Education on how to deal with projected shortfalls in the state grant program. Unlike the Governor, the Senate did spare the state grant program from further reductions
Also today, a new revenue forecast was released for the state. The new projection shows a slight improvement in the budget outlook for the current biennium as the new projected shortfall is $998 million, down from an estimated $1.2 billion in November of last year. While this is good news on the budget front, it will likely not change the budget reduction number for MnSCU as the federal maintenance of effort requirements prohibit the state from reducing higher education funding below 2006 levels.
As always if you have questions regarding a legislative issue, please feel free to contact the MSCSA office at 651-297-5877.
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