University budget planning team challenged by lack of promised state funding as Gov. Nixon’s bill stalls in Senate

With less than two months until the end of the semester, University President Troy Paino and members of his administration are beginning to prepare next year’s budget.

Although this is routine, Truman must now meet criteria for funding as it begins planning its budget for the 2017 fiscal year. Gov. Jay Nixon proposed a 5.5 percent funding increase for higher education institutes during December. However, the budget recently was reduced to a 2 percent increase that is only available if the state reaches a certain revenue amount.

“I think Truman has a very challenging situation,” Nixon says. “We’ll be unable to stay competitive … and it’s going to be difficult to stay competitive.”

Although the Missouri Senate has not passed the bill, Paino and staff must plan for the event that Truman State will not be receive additional state funding. Paino sayss Missouri law prohibits more than a 0.75 percent yearly increase on in-state tuition, which would be about $50 per student.

Paino says if the University has to budget with a zero percent increase and modest tuition increases, it will  force them to look carefully at the budget, possibly making small cuts to reallocate into salaries. Paino says one of his major goals this year was to give employees raises.

“It certainly puts a constraint on giving the faculty the raise that I wanted to. We were hopeful that this would be the year that we could do something more significant on salary increases. We’re still hopeful that that will be the reality, but this is certainly a step in the wrong direction.”

– President Troy Paino

Paino says he also would like to make a one-time investment in the Blueprint Team that has been working to make new plans for campus and to continue to invest in the Physical Plant.

For more on Truman’s budget, continue reading on Issuu.