(The Center Square) – Public university officials are asking for more money from Illinois taxpayers as lawmakers raise questions about school finances.
University of Illinois system President Timothy Killeen said U of I officials requested a 13.2% increase in state funding this year over last year, or another $804.4 million. Killeen said Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed budget called for a 3% increase.
Killeen and other U of I system officials addressed the Illinois Senate Appropriations Education Committee on Tuesday. The committee also heard from Illinois State University and Southern Illinois University administrators.
Illinois Senate Bill 13 would shift the state’s funding model for public universities to one recommended by the Illinois Board of Higher Education Commission on Equitable Public University Funding.
Killeen explained why the U of I system opposes the commission’s funding formula.
“We have 53% of the students attending public universities, but under that proposal, we would receive only 28% of the state investment in public higher education looking forward, according to that. We feel that is an undervaluation of the role of the U of I given all of the other assets that we bring to the table,” Killeen said.
According to Killeen, the equitable funding formula fails to include metrics for graduation.
“Maybe it’s a philosophical difference, but there ought to be an outcome orientation to the overall methodology to support public higher education in the state of Illinois. That includes graduation. It includes participation in civil society,” Killeen said.
Killeen said he hoped state lawmakers would see U of I as a profit center and not a cost center. He said university officials have been busy working through executive orders and potential funding cuts by the federal government.
State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, offered a series of questions and comments about the U of I system’s finances, including budget items for the University of Illinois Chicago hospital.
“You’re asking the taxpayers to cover UIC’s hospital bed tax because your patient mix doesn’t come with private insurance to cover the bed tax,” Rose said.
Rose added that tuition from Urbana students was covering hospital expenses in Chicago.
In an earlier exchange, Illinois State University president Aondover Tarhule told Rose that ISU supports the state’s proposed equitable funding formula, even though his school would remain last among Illinois universities in per-student funding of operations.
“It’s an improvement,” Tarhule said.
“It’s an improvement, sure. It’s more money, I get it,” Rose said.
“It doesn’t get us to where we would like it…” Tarhule admitted.
“I get that. It’s more money,” Rose interrupted.
“It’s an improvement,” Tarhule said.
“But you’re still coming in last,” Rose said, referring to ISU’s per-student funding from state taxpayers.
Tarhule said ISU requested a 20% increase in funding from the state this year. Pritzker’s budget provided a 3% increase.
Both Tarhule and SIU President Daniel Mahony expressed concerns about the governor’s proposal that community colleges in Illinois be allowed to offer four-year degrees.
Mahony called it “unproductive competition.”
