State colleges free to raise tuition to offset budget cuts

DENVER • Colorado's state colleges and universities would be the biggest losers under the proposed 2009-10 state budget introduced in the Legislature on Monday.

To deal with declining tax revenues in the midst of a recession, the legislative Joint Budget Committee drafted a $17.9 billion proposal that would trim $424.7 million from general-fund appropriations for higher education, a cut of 54 percent from the 2008-09 total.

One-time federal stimulus money is expected to soften the blow by $72.5 million, and a separate and controversial proposal to raid a state workers' compensation insurance fund for $300.5 million would reduce the overall higher education cut to $51.7 million, a decline of 8 percent.

But higher education would still suffer most if the budget package is adopted by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Bill Ritter.

Appropriations for the University of Colorado system, including its Colorado Springs campus, would be reduced by $35.9 million, a cut of 18 percent.

Funding for the community college system, including Pikes Peak Community College, would be cut by the same percentage, a reduction of $24.5 million.

To compensate, the budget proposal would free the state's public universities and colleges to increase tuition for Colorado residents by an average of 9 percent.

The governing boards of the state schools would have discretion as to how to reach this average, and schools are exploring big tuition increases for engineering and science students, who require expensive laboratories, and small ones for liberal arts disciplines in which the only real expense is teacher salaries.

Spending on elementary and secondary education, which unlike higher ed is constitutionally protected, would grow by 5 percent, or $146.2 million, and the Department of Corrections' budget would grow by $22 million, a 3 percent increase.

About 100 students rallied on the steps of the Capitol on Monday to protest the budget cuts and tuition increases, and educators and their advocates reacted with dismay.

"We are concerned and are monitoring this situation," UCCS Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak said Monday.

The state Commission on Higher Education issued a statement expressing "deep concern."

"Reductions of this magnitude will fundamentally undermine the competitive position and economic future of the state," the commission said, predicting "tragic consequences in closing the door of opportunity for thousands of Colorado students at a time when job losses are driving more students to return to higher education."

The commission urged legislative leaders to "rely on less damaging options available to balance the budget."

But Sen. Moe Keller, a Democrat from Wheat Ridge and a member of the six-person Joint Budget Committee, said all other options had been tried or at least considered, including freezing salaries, ending some tax exemptions, tapping the state's rainy-day fund, closing prisons, selling state-owned buildings and eliminating smaller state departments like Military and Veterans Affairs.

Keller said the money just didn't add up.

"We could close 17 departments and not equal $60 million," she said. "We were stumped. In our general fund, the only place we have discretionary funding that amounts to anything is higher ed."

Keller said she was distressed by the budget her committee had produced.

"This is awful every way you look at it," she said.

The bill is scheduled for its first legislative hearing Tuesday morning.

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Contact Toda at 476-1654. Gazette writer Debbie Kelley contributed to this report.