The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

    Legislature begins debating state budget

    Southeastern is just one of the Louisiana colleges that have to deal with state budget cuts for the upcoming fiscal year. As anticipated, the budget calls for a reduction of spending for higher education.   

    According to Governor Bobby Jindal’s Fiscal Year 2016 Executive Budget, “Higher education funding will decrease by $141.3 million in the FY16 Executive Budget.” This is due largely to the drop of oil barrel prices. 

    Since the 1980s, the state has reduced its need for oil by 70 percent, but the cost of a barrel of oil is still one of the states economic incomes of cash flow. 

    In the last year, the price of oil has dropped over 50 percent, contributing to two mid-year deficits in fiscal year 2015 as well as the lowered revenues projected for fiscal year 2016.

    Over the discussion leading up to this Executive Budget, one of the programs that was considered in jeopardy was the Workforce and Innovation for a Stronger Economy program that was announced last year. One of the goals of the WISE initiative was to strengthen the linkage between college coursework and the employment needs of business and industry. 

    For the FY16 Executive Budget, Jindal is planning to continue the WISE initiative with a $30 million investment. $5.7 million will come from the State General Fund while the rest will come from Community Development Block Grants program income. 

    Since 1998, the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students has helped high school students attend Louisiana colleges for up to eight semesters. Over the last seven years, TOPS has increased by 142 percent and Jindal plans to continue this program by increasing funding by $34 million.  

    Another issue that has been brought up is tuition increases. Louisiana is the only state that requires two-thirds of the Legislature to sign for an increase in tuition. The State Board of Regents has addressed this issue and is contemplating the possibility of the proposed constitutional amendment to remove legislative approval over the increase of tuition. 

    Louisiana voters passed the amendment for state regulation of tuition cost as a constitutional amendment in 1995. In order to get rid of this amendment, two-thirds of the State Legislature needs to approve its repeal. Then it would need to go on ballot for Louisiana voters to make the final decision. 

    These are only a few of the issues brought up for the 2016 fiscal year. The final budget proposed by Jindal will likely be finalized in June as the state’s fiscal year begins July 1. 

     
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