Education May Suffer $695M Cut

And for both state legislators and UNC-system officials, the good news is, well, nonexistent.

State legislators returned to Raleigh this week and began searching for ways to cut about $1.2 billion from the 2002-03 state budget in an effort to overcome one of the worst fiscal situations in state history.

Education, which makes up about 60 percent of the state's $14.7 billion budget, could bear the brunt of the proposed cuts with the $695 million reduction. Other state agencies will be expected to trim a total of $510 million from their budgets.

Next week, appropriation subcommittees in the state legislature are slated to begin investigations into how much can be cut from state agencies in the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.

The N.C. General Assembly will consider recommendations from those committees when it reconvenes May 28 and begins redrafting the budget.

But legislators insist that the current figure for budget cuts is preliminary.

"That's just a target," said Rep. Warren Oldham, D-Forsyth and co-chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "That's just what we're trying to reach. It has to do with a certain percentage of the budget, and education accounts for a great proportion of the budget."

Although Gov. Mike Easley informed state agencies last week to brace for budget cuts, he wrote in a March 21 letter to UNC-system chancellors that one of his goals was to "protect the classroom" from the effects of the budget cuts.

Since then, the Easley administration and the General Assembly have produced conflicting numbers about the best way to spare education from the cuts while balancing the budget.

But Jeff Davies, UNC-system vice president of finance, said the system budget could not stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. "If those kinds of dollars are cut, we would certainly cut instruction," he said. "We are very hopeful that this will change substantially."

Davies said the UNC system usually tries other measures like restructuring school administrations and leaving vacant positions unfilled -- only rarely does it make cuts directly to the classroom.

"I don't doubt that we have an economic problem in the state," Davies said. "But I don't think that we could provide the same level of education with those cuts."

Oldham said universities can manage the cuts better than K-12 education or community colleges.

"At the higher education level, they do have some options," he said. "The larger research institutions have the option of going to funding provided by research (grants)."

He said the legislature's numbers are not in agreement with the governor's because Easley has a dual role -- dealing with the current budget and attempting to formulate one for the next fiscal year.

Sen. Howard Lee, D-Orange, co-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the General Assembly will consider factors besides finances when making cuts to the UNC system.

"The subcommittee will take the ($695 million) and apportion it out," he said. "They will also evaluate if they took the whole amount and find out the impact on the (individual) campuses."

Lee said he further expects the subcommittee to look at cutting administration costs first.

"Obviously, our first commitment is to protect the classroom," Lee said. "As to the university system, our other commitment is to fund enrollment. It'll be painful, and it'll be tough to do. Everything has to be justified at this point."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.