After four years of budget cuts for higher education, some Mississippi Legislators aim to restore higher education funding to FY 2000 level-the highest level higher education funding experienced in Mississippi’s history. They hope to have the bill ready to be considered by committees by next week.
Several state legislators are developing an appropriations bill with two objectives.
First, the legislators want to add an additional $130 million to the higher education appropriation. “We built a wooden bridge (last year),” said Rep. Steve Holland (D-Tupelo), chairman of the Appropriation Subcommittee on Universities and Colleges. “Now we’ll get a concrete bridge.”
The additional funds will come from cash balances in several state agencies, mostly the Department of Transportation. MDOT’s reason for excess funds is bad weather. Mississippi funds road building with a “pay as you go” system, which means the state pays for roads as they are built, instead of selling bonds like most states. Because of the “pay as you go” system, MDOT can quickly react to changes in road building plans.
Most of MDOT’s budget comes from a gasoline tax, a license tag fee and an inspection sticker fee. All of these collections remained steady over the past year.
Since constant rain over the past few months slowed building, MDOT had extra money at the end of 2002.
“(The extra money) will buy us one year to think of long-term strategic planning,” Holland said.
Most of the $130 million will go to faculty salary increases and also fund “centers of excellence” on each of Mississippi’s seven campuses. The “centers of excellence” will bolster each individual university’s strengths in hopes of attracting more research dollars and also develop technologies that will bring jobs to Mississippi. Among the areas in which an MSU “center of excellence” might specialize are engineering, veterinary medicine and agriculture.
Since some federal and private agencies take the total amount of a university’s reasearch budget into consideration when awarding grants, legislators hope faculty can use the additional research dollars as leverage for more funding.
Lawmakers’ second goal is to establish a stable source of income to fund higher education. Some ideas being considered as ways to provide stable funding for higher education include an increased upper-bracket income tax, a cigarette tax, ending some sales tax exemptions and a lottery. According to Holland, “Everything is on the table. There is plenty to look at for steady streams of income.”
According to Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Billy McCoy (D-Rienzi), several government agencies, including the Mississippi Development Authority, are working with legislators to come up with a long-term plan to spur economic development through investments in higher education.
The long-term plan for higher education will likely include increased funding for research facilities, especially facilities working in automotive research, alternative energy and land and water resource management. The overall idea is to tie economic development and higher education closer in order to bring well-paying high-tech jobs to Mississippi.
“We want to see how higher education is working for a cutting-edge future for Mississippi,” McCoy said.
The deadline for the plan is Nov. 20.