SANTA FE — The UNM Board of Regents will now decide how to stop the bleeding from the deep cuts formed by the Legislature’s special session.
The special session adjourned late last week after four days in session. The Legislature decided to cut $100 million in government spending and approved $240 million in tax increases.
And the final figure approved by the Legislature for tuition credit, or the amount UNM must increase tuition, is 5 percent for four-year institutions and 9 percent for two-year institutions, such as branch campuses.
Marc Saavedra, director of the UNM Office of Government and Community Relations, said this was the fourth time the Legislature has made cuts to government spending in the past year, which makes dealing with the aftermath routine.
“We have been seeing ourselves getting cut,” he said. “It’s been kind of slow bleeding.”
Rep. Andrew Barreras
(D-Valencia) said the process was difficult, but legislators did what they could to further funding for education.
“I am a little disheartened by the process,” he said. “We tried helping education the best way we knew how.”
Saavedra said he was pleased with UNM’s achievements, including the work they did to keep down tuition credit and preserve faculty salaries.
“We achieved quite a bit,” he said. “We would have liked to have kept the tuition credit down to zero, but at one time they had out-of-state-tuition at 18 percent and we were able to reduce that.”
Saavedra said tuition increases will be covered by the Lottery Scholarship, however only about 20 percent of students on main campus receive lottery funds.
Saavedra said keeping the tuition increases down was attributable to tax increases enacted by the state.
“If we hadn’t had revenue enhancements, then we were looking at an 8 percent cut,” he said.
Lawmakers approved a 5.125 percent increase to the gross receipt tax, a 75-cent increase on cigarette taxes and a 2 percent food tax to be mandated by cities.
Saavedra said another victory for UNM was preventing salaries from being cut. The Legislative Finance Committee had originally proposed a 2 percent cut to all salaries.
UNM received a 3.5 percent overall reduction in government funding.
Another victory for UNM, University Spokeswoman Susan McKinsey said the Board of Regents will decide how the budget reductions are distributed during the budget summit.
“The legislature did not place any restrictions on how state funds coming to the University are to be allocated or how cuts are to be made,” McKinsey said in an e-mail. “The University retained full flexibility in that regard.”
Leading up to the session, presidents of New Mexico universities issued a statement requesting flexibility when implementing cuts mandated by the Legislature.
McKinsey said the Regents will come up with a budget based on state funding approved by the Legislature and the amount set for tuition increases.
Saavedra said administrators will have to look at each department’s funding and decide where cuts can be made.
“Last year we all got cut,” he said. “We’ll see what happens this year. Hopefully everyone shares in balancing the budget.”
Despite UNM’s successes at the Legislature, some factors are still undetermined. UNM was successful in getting the Legislature to approve 30 percent of the general obligation bonds for teaching facilities; however, those bonds will have to be approved by voters during the November elections.
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“Right now, because of the economy, there is still concerns that the voters may not vote for GOBs,” Saavedra said.
In addition, the state budget was crafted under the assumption that the state will see a 6 percent growth rate over the next year. If this figure is inaccurate, state legislators will have to convene for another special session and more cuts could be made.
House Speaker Ben Lujan said he hopes to see better economic times in upcoming sessions.
“I pray that we see better days ahead,” he said. “This was troubled waters, but we’ve kept our ship afloat.”
Saavedra said state revenue projections are still looking slim for the upcoming year, and UNM is bracing for further blows to funding.
“Hopefully this was the last round of cuts,” he said. “But we still have to prepare for possible cuts in the fall or next session.”
McKinsey said administrators have been preparing for budget shortcomings by having the provost prepare scenarios for potential cuts. She said the President’s Strategic Advisory Team has also been looking at ways to contain costs and increase revenues.
“Given the challenging economic climate, UNM fared as well as could be expected,” McKinsey said.
Saavedra said he is concerned over what future cuts could mean for UNM.
“It is still manageable. Our concern is how far can we continue to be cut,” he said. “We are hoping that this is going to be the last.”
