The ball finally got rolling on the 2002-03 UNM operating budget during the Board of Regents' Finance and Facilities Committee meeting Wednesday when the budget expenditure levels were approved for the regents' review.
More than a week after the state Legislature called an extraordinary session to override Gov. Gary Johnson's budget veto, UNM glimpsed its fiscal year future. The battle had been fought between Johnson and the Legislature since the beginning of the year's first legislative session, special session and then extraordinary session, with the lame-duck governor vetoing each budget brought before him.
Johnson vowed to go in determined during his last legislative session, citing soaring Medicaid spending and overuse of the state's reserves as reasons for his refusal to sign off on a budget. UNM floundered for months, unsure of the budget it would have to work with for the upcoming year. In the end, Johnson was overridden by the state Legislature, ending an eight-year deadlock with legislators and the governor.
Now UNM has begun its own struggle to determine its funding limitations indicated in the state budget. University officials had to make contingency plans, creating two separate budgets earlier in the spring semester to alleviate the uncertainty.
Julie Weaks, vice president for Business and Finance, said Senate Bill 1, the first budget bill considered, is closest to what the Legislature allocated the University. SB1 originally had a $198,067,748 expenditure base.
Weaks added that although more detailed documents were not prepared, Scenario C, which is the funding that was finally allocated to UNM during the extraordinary session, would be the preliminary budget.
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She said changes in the expenditure base occurred when the general fund tuition credit increased from 2.5 to 3 percent. A tuition credit is a funding percentage that the Legislature reduces from the University's operating budget, which happens when legislators think students should pay for certain expenses by a tuition increase.
She said Scenario C will end up with an expenditure base of $197, 901,048, which is a 2.3 percent change from last year's base - a $166, 700 reduction from the original SB1. Weaks added that after all the committees reviewed the new budget, they found that the most adaptable area to cover the decrease was in Academic Affairs, which would be allocated $318,300 instead of the $485,000 projected in the original SB1.
"All of the other allocation funds are really not flexible," Weaks said.
Also taken into account is the 4.3 tuition increase for resident students and a 10 percent law school resident tuition increase the regents approved in May. According to Scenario C figures, revenue generated by the overall tuition increase would be $2,525,408.
The regents will first begin examining an expenditure summary, a new "fund allocation" spreadsheet reflecting Scenario C. The full "Operating and Capital Budget Plans" document for the fiscal year 2002-03 budget will be up for review during the next regular Board of Regents meeting in August.
