By JENELLE GREWELL
News Editor
In the future budget situation of APSU, “good news” and “not so good news,” as President Timothy Hall puts it, are both possibilities.

The Tennessee legislature is in session to adopt a new state budget for the upcoming year.

Hall said Tennessee Governor Phil Bredeson’s proposed budget includes a three percent bonus for state employees, which includes the faculty and staff of universities.

Sonja Stewart, budget director, said the bonus would not include student employees.

It is not certain the governor’s proposal will ultimately be adopted by the legislature, and, if so, how and when the three percent bonus might be distributed, Hall said.

Hall said the governor is proposing a three percent bonus, but last year APSU planned a three year budget. The budget planned for three-percent salary increase in effect July 2010.

Hall said if other state institutions are unable to provide a salary increase, APSU may not be permitted to give the three percent salary increase. “I’m hopeful, though, that we will be permitted to provide at least some salary relief for our faculty and staff, though I am doubtful that we would be able to do so any earlier than the fall,” Hall said.

However, the Governor’s proposal would require APSU to pay for the three percent salary increase. Hall said this requirement, plus a few others would require APSU to spend about $2 million set aside for other purposes.

Hall said there was a budget cut of six percent, but this past year APSU did not actually take the budget because the state gave money to cover the cut. Hall said this money is called “maintenance of effort.”

Hall said Bredeson has told the universities in his proposal to pay for the three percent bonus using the maintenance of effort. “We already had planned on other things to do with that money so we essentially have to come up with $2 million,” Hall said.

Hall said there are two ways APSU will come up with the $2 million. “One, is we had great enrollment this year and we expect that enrollment to increase next year,” Hall said. He also said some of this money will come from the increase in students every year.

He said some of the maintenance of effort money went into physical things for the university such as improving energy. “So instead of doing some of those things with the money, we are going to pull money from our plant funds.”

Part of Bredeson’s budget included a tax on the first $15 of cable service people in Tennessee receive, Hall said. He said currently the first $15 of cable services is not taxed. “This proposal has already drawn some criticism, but the governor has warned that if the tax proposal is not adopted, then institutions such as APSU would be required to take an additional three percent reduction in state funding,” Hall said.

“I still believe APSU is as well-positioned as any of the state’s universities to weather the continued gloomy budget climate,” Hall said.

Hall said for the APSU budget to stay on track of the three year budget plan, enrollment would have to continue to increase at four percent and an increase in tuition of about five percent. He said this past year there was a more than four percent enrollment rate and the tuition was increased by a little more than five percent.

“We are going to have more tuition revenue than expected because we are having more students then we projected.” He said this extra revenue will keep APSU from having to take big cuts from programs.

“The positive effect [of a salary and a bonus for faculty and staff] would be that we can keep and hire good faculty,” Hall said.

He said when salaries stay flat it makes it hard to hire and keep faculty when they see they can get paid more at other institutions.

Hall said APSU salaries are already less than the rest of the salaries of Tennessee Board of Regents.

“We are trying not to cut people because we need people to serve our students, especially as we continue to grow. Otherwise, every line is longer, every class is bigger and every assignment takes longer to get graded. That is what we are trying to avoid,” he said.

“I would rather have bigger classes [than increase tuition],” Ryan Haddock, sophomore biology major said. He said having classes a little bigger would not make a big difference.

Kristien Hinkle, freshman print and web journalism major, said she would also prefer bigger classes to higher tuition. “I wouldn’t be here if it was expensive.”

Hall said APSU is trying not to take cuts from the areas that affect students the most.

“These cuts are particularly happening in administrative types of things. They are happening in the physical plant and the flowers. We have actually increased the amount of our budget that is going towards instruction,” Hall said.
“Flowers are important, we are going to continue to have flowers, but we are going to have fewer flowers than faculty.”