It’s that time of year again — the time to make cuts to higher education.

Oh wait, that’s like a year-round thing now. Our mistake.

Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich sued Gov. Jay Nixon Aug. 26 for unconstitutionally withholding $170 million of state funding from 45 different programs that money had been allocated to for the year. The issue was not so much a matter of the funds being held, but Schweich claims that the money was not approved by the state legislature, among other infractions he said the governor made disregarding the Missouri Constitution.

The $170 million in question was withheld from these programs in order to fund disaster clean-up in places like Joplin, in Missouri’s catastrophic spring storm season. We are by no means saying those areas do not deserve support; restoring them to their former glory should be one of the state’s top priorities.

But that’s what the magical idea of a “rainy day fund” is for: random occurrences that are going to cost the state a large sum of money to fix, like natural disaster clean-up. That money should not be taken from places it has been allocated to fund, such as higher education and other state programs.

The rainy day fund had $527.4 million in 2010, according to a 2011 report by the Missouri Budget Project. It’s safe to say taking a $170 million to fund something as important as disaster response would not have been a problem.

And then come the strings associated with this fund that is meant for the state to fall back on in times of need.

One of the main issues with this fund, which various legislators as well as the Missouri Budget Project have pointed out over the years, is that money removed from the rainy day fund must be repaid within the next three years after it was borrowed, interest and all. It worried state legislators that this would not be possible due to slow state economic growth from the rough economy, so they just decided not to tap into the fund at all to fund disaster clean-up. Instead, they decided to tap into higher education and other statewide programs.

How sweet of them.

Obviously there’s a problem with the regulations around this fund if it’s going to be deemed “untouchable” in times of need, like cleaning up after one of the worst tornadoes in U.S. history.

The state of Missouri has a legal responsibility to fund state programs like higher education. When you run out of money to pay for something, tap your savings account. It’s really quite simple. That way, issues that are the top priority of your citizens, like that crazy thing called a college degree, can still be funded. Since, you know, the state of Missouri is legally required to do so.

Of course money desperately needs to go toward disaster relief, so make the fund for that money usable and loosen its regulations and the three-year time limit on paying the money back. That way, we won’t have to make cuts to areas like higher education that the state already cut the guts out of this year when it appropriated the funds for them in the first place.