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After several years of cuts to higher education, there is hope to generate funding for Louisiana’s universities this legislative session.
State Treasurer John Kennedy asked the Faculty Senate at Nicholls to support House Bill 142, which requires a 10 percent reduction to professional, personal and consulting service contracts with direct savings put toward higher education.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Dee Richard, would reduce the almost $5.28 billion spent on more than 19,000 consulting contracts, Kennedy said. By cutting 10 percent in the state’s spending, the bill would generate $528 million for higher education.
“That money would be specifically dedicated to higher education,” Kennedy said. “That would overnight almost double the amount of money we are spending on higher education to our general fund.”
States agencies have the option to reduce their spending by eliminating or renegotiating contracts.
Kennedy pinpointed 5,499 consulting contracts with the Department of Education from 2005 to 2010 for $650 million, and a contract in Natchitoches Parish where a consultant is paid $67,000 per year to encourage Hispanic citizens to wear their seatbelts.
“There are some consultants that deliver services we need, but we have some consultants we don’t need,” Kennedy said.
In 2008, Louisiana spent close to $1.6 billion on higher education, Kennedy said, compared to the $525 million budgeted this year.
“That’s a 67 percent cut,” the state treasurer said. “We are one of the few states who continue to reduce our spending on higher education.”
The cuts in recent years have caused universities to impose tuition hikes to their students and deny raises to their faculty.
“It’s been seven years without raises and the students have had a 20-percent increase in the last two years,” Steve Michot, Faculty Senate President at Nicholls, said. “Salaries are essentially decreasing as cost of living increases and as the cost of benefits increases along with retirement.”
Michot said while many educators and students continue to wonder where the improvements to the state’s higher education system are, the bill represents a positive turn in events where the state looks to invest in education.
“This is a bright light we haven’t seen in almost a decade,” he said. “It looks promising.”
Dependent on the bill’s approval in the Senate Finance Committee, the money would be given to the Board of Regents, which coordinates public higher education in Louisiana, which would then appropriate the money to each university.
Kennedy said aside from the Workforce and Innovation for a Stonger Economy (WISE) Fund, which provides funding to institutions to expand workforce programs and meet industry demand, House Bill 142 is the only other consideration to help higher education this session.
“It is only for workforce development and not for every university unless they can raise private money to match it,” he said of the WISE Fund. “When you have cut as much as we have and you’re only putting back $40 million, it’s not enough.”
Gov. Bobby Jindal has opposed the bill for the past two years, but Kennedy continues to rally the bill to university faculty members across the state.
“It doesn’t raise taxes and it doesn’t raise tuition,” he said about the bill.
