**Correction appended**
Higher education is sitting on the chopping block once again in Gov. Jay Nixon’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2013. Compared to the 2012 budget, funding could be cut as much as 12.5 percent if the proposed budget is passed in April by the state legislature.
The money allocated toward higher education comes from a variety of statewide funds, but the potential decrease in funding for colleges and universities is due to less money being allocated to public universities from the general revenue fund. The budget also proposes that less funding come from areas including federal funding, the Guaranty Agency Operating Fund and the Lewis and Clark Discovery Fund.
Additional funding for higher education would come from the Advantage Missouri Trust Fund, the Institution Gift Trust Fund and the AP Incentive Grant Fund.
For the UM System specifically, the budget proposes a reduction of about $55 million total.
MU spokesman Christian Basi said right now it is too early to comment on the proposed budget and things could change between now and April, when the budget comes to an official vote.
“Our institutions promote access and affordability, but resources can only stretch so far,” Department of Higher Education Commissioner David Russell said in a news release. Like Nixon, Russell said they need to look for more innovative ways to meet the funding needs of higher education.
The governor’s proposed budget allocates the same amount of money as it did last year toward scholarship programs. The Access Missouri scholarship program, which was funded from a one-time appropriation of $30 million from the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority and matched by the state of Missouri to make for a total of $60 million last year, will continue to be funded in 2013, but solely from the state this time.
Paul Wagner, deputy commissioner for the Department for Higher Education, said he was pleasantly surprised by Nixon’s decision to continue funding the Access Missouri scholarship program in his proposed budget for fiscal year 2013, since the state wasn’t its source of funding last year.
Wagner said the 12.5 percent cut to higher education institutions is still difficult.
“On the other side of that, with the institutions being cut 12.5 percent, it’s just devastating,” he said. “There’s no way to sugarcoat it. It’s bad news.”
Wagner said he thinks the governor didn’t want to have to cut higher education, but he had a lot of distasteful choices to make.
“The university can either make cuts or raise tuition,” said Rep. Stephen Webber, D-Columbia. “It’s probably going to be a combination of both.”
Webber is also an MU law student.
The final budget will go to the legislature for a vote at the end of April, toward the end of the spring session.
-Maneater reporter Michael Shaw contributed to this report.
**Correction appended:** We originally said the Access Missouri financial assistance program was funded in FY2012 by a one-time grant for $30 million from the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority. To clarify, MOHELA did give $30 million to the fund, but the state of Missouri matched the $30 million to double the program’s funding. For FY2013, Nixon’s proposed budget has the state funding the entire $60 million itself, without MOHELA’s help. The Maneater regrets the error.