Budget deficit to force tough choices

June 25, 2007 —

SVSU's Board of Control delayed passing a budget for the 2007-2008 fiscal year at its formal meeting on June 11. The Board will convene in early July for an emergency session in hopes of passing a revised budget.

SVSU President Eric R. Gilbertson said that the state legislature would need to make progress in its 2008 budget before the University can determine its own. The legislature is currently gridlocked along largely partisan lines as to how to resolve the looming deficit for 2008. Without a good idea as to what kind of funding SVSU will be receiving from the state, the administration is left frustrated.

The state legislature only recently resolved its 2007 budget deficit with series of delayed payments (such as appropriations to state-supported universities) and budget cuts. Now, legislators must decide how to best resolve 2008's deficit. According to Eugene Hamilton, SVSU's representative in state government, the budget has become politicized, with sharp philosophical disagreement between members of the legislature.

"It's become very partisan," he said. "The Republican controlled senate has held the line, and they're insistent that the budget be balanced by cuts alone."

Democratic representatives have not uniformly supported tax increases as a solution to the state's budget problems, but they have not been as strictly opposed to them as their Republican counterparts. In addition, some Democratic representatives are in volatile seats, meaning that their constituents might vote them out of office if they were to vote for a tax increase in the legislature, even if the representatives themselves personally support them in order to resolve the state's budget deficit.

Governor Jennifer Granholm has supported a tax increase since the budget problem became a critical issue in 2006.

"It all boils down to taxes, to revenue enhancements," Hamilton said. "The governor has definitely advocated some type of tax increase - she's saying we have to have some sort of tax increase."

But house and senate Republicans remain steadfast, insisting that the size and scope of government is at the root of the problem. In an interview with the Detroit Free Press, Senate Majority Leader Michael Bishop argued that reducing government spending is the key to balancing the state budget.

"If the governor's not willing to make the cuts necessary to balance this budget, we've got to fill that gap somehow, no question about it," he said. "Even if we only have a continuation budget, which is a simple transfer of the line items to next year."

"Many people would disagree," Hamilton said. "Many will say you've only shifted the budget."

Hamilton explained that some representatives feel as though that deeper cut only shift the problems of state government onto citizens. For example, by cutting into higher education budgets, the state legislature has made going to college more expensive for many people.

While the representatives in the state legislature work to resolve their differences, all SVSU can do is wait. Despite this, Hamilton urges voters to understand.

"They all mean well; we can't just bury them," he said. "But they're in tough political positions."