Despite a previous veto on a bill that left funding for higher education in an uncertain state, Gov. Susana Martinez has signed legislation to ensure continued state funding for higher education.
Rep. Antonio "Moe" Maestas (D-Bernalillo) serves on the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, which is responsible for the budget. He said there were only two differences between the new budget and the original budget.
The new budget will give an extra $1 million dollars to UNM health sciences and another million dollars to tuition assistance, Maestas said.
“The big thing is: the revenue projections today are far more hopeful than the revenue projections back in February,” he said. “So, the bill on the governor's desk didn’t change, but the outlook changed, which allowed us to go home with a balanced budget.”
Maestas said the uncertainty of the higher education budget created tremendous stress and anxiety among faculty, staff and students. He added that when the semester starts, calculations should be taken into account to determine how many faculty, staff and students were lost to surrounding universities.
“It’s incomprehensible that the sitting governor would hold the entire college-university system hostage because of her inability to pass a bill,” he said.
Maestas said colleges and universities come to the legislature, seeking not what they need—but what they think can get.
“That is contributing to a downward spiral in college and university funding,” he said. “So next year they need to come to the legislature and seek what they need.”
Doing so should provide a clear indication of what the budget needs to outline to ensure that higher education becomes New Mexico’s economic driver, he said.
Despite the goals for higher education funding, all faculty, staff and students can heave a sigh of relief, knowing that funding will be in the bank on July 1 for the upcoming fiscal year, Maestas said.
Budget approval has helped ensure that all budgets were submitted to the Department of Financial Administration by the June 1 deadline, said Executive Director for the Council of University Presidents Marc H. Saavedra.
“Revenue projections are showing a two percent growth right now,” Saavedra said. “I think those developments somewhat help the legislature and the governor to restore the funding...We're also very thankful for the work the governor and the legislature did during the special session to get this done. Now we officially have a budget, so that helps with some of the instability and helps put us in the right direction of stabilizing things.”
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However, while the funding has been restored, it still resulted in a one percent cut to higher education, he said.
“From our position, this should be the last time we have to cut higher education,” Saavedra said. “We just can't continue to receive cut(s) year after year, because that continues to create instability as well, and it's hard to plan that way. We’ll work with the one percent; we just don’t want any cuts going further.”
Saavedra said he would like to work with the legislature and the governor on finding ways to give additional funding to also find ways to improve a number of areas in terms of degrees awarded and graduation rates.
“We would like to work with legislation and the governor to start to let people not only in New Mexico but in the country, realize what a great higher education and what great schools we have, like the University of New Mexico,” he said.
Saavedra said students should be aware that on June 1, they will know how much funding will be available for the lottery scholarship, as the liquor excise tax money will expire June 30, and the percentage of the tax money students receive in the form of scholarships will be changing.
He gives UNM’s Interium President Chaouki Abdallah and other university higher-ups credit for helping assure higher education for this year.
“Hopefully (students) realize there's a lot of people going to bat for them,” Saavedra said. “I think our chancellor down in New Mexico State and our presidents at UNM and the other institutions deserve a lot of credit for the work that they've done in the last few months.”
“We are pleased that the Governor and the Legislature agreed on the bill to fund higher education for the upcoming year,” Abdallah said. “While we always anticipated receiving the funding, the recent agreement removed the anxiety and uncertainties in the minds of our constituencies and allows us to finalize our University budget.”
Due to the state revenue shortfall and despite despite legislative/gubernatorial efforts, the appropriations are one percent below last year's budget, which was seven percent below the previous year, he said.
“Such cuts cannot easily be made up from enhanced tuition revenues, and will continue to lead to budget and services cuts within UNM, which, I worry may lead to a reversal in our recent trajectory in improving our graduation rates,” Abdallah said. “UNM will be working diligently this year to redesign a financial model to help mitigate the effects of future budget shortfalls.”
Nichole Harwood is a reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Nolidoli1.
