The Capitol Report 4/4/17: Senate proposes new cuts to university budget
by Michelle Saport |
The Capitol Report - April 4, 2017
Today is the 78th day of the legislative session. Yesterday was a somber day for the University of Alaska here in Juneau.
President Jim Johnsen described yesterday's action in the Alaska Senate as potentially "devastating" to the university.
After much delay, the Senate Finance Committee revealed a new version of the FY18 Operating Budget (HB57/HB59) on April 3 that would cut $22 million from the university, $5.7 million in new cuts in addition to the $16.3 million the Senate previously proposed. The Senate's budget proposal would result in a $75 million (19.8 percent) cut over the last four years. The finance committee also adopted the House's recommendation to take $17 million from the U-Med Northern Access project effectively ending state funding for this critical transportation infrastructure project. You can watch yesterday's hearing here and access a summary of university impacts here.
Alternatively, you can watch the 360 North broadcast of the hearing here.
The bill is now on the Senate floor and will be voted on during tomorrow's floor session.
Read the full report at alaska.edu/state/report.
The Capitol Report, written by Miles Baker, UA Associate Vice President for Government Relations, is designed to keep the University of Alaska community informed about the current legislative session, particularly its impact on the university budget.
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"The Capitol Report 4/4/17: Senate proposes new cuts to university budget" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.