U Of I’s Budget Plan To Include FY 2015 Figure From State

University of Illinois Trustees will soon vote on a budget for the next fiscal year, without knowing how much, if any, state funding, to expect - due to the ongoing budget impasse in Springfield. Normally, the U of I would use the current budget year as a guide when planning for the next one.

But since there’s been no budget, Chief Financial Officer Walter Knorr says trustees will use the state’s appropriation for the previous budget year -- FY 2015 -- as a guide when they meet in Springfield next week. 

"It's something that we've done in the past - for at least the last dozen years," he told a U of I Trustees committee Monday.  "It's a little bit different, cause we don't have a (Fiscal Year) 2016 budget, so we're using the 2015 budget really as kind of the model, the stepping stone, going forward."

The university is required by state law to approve a budget before the end of the fiscal year.

Knorr told the Audit, Budget, Finance, and Facilities Committee their their budget plan will include cost reduction efforts the university has implemented over the past year.

Last month, legislators approved stopgap funding to help state universities and community colleges get through the summer. 

About $180-million of that went to the U of I.  Knorr says separate legislation approved by the state Senate last week, but awaiting action by the House, would mean an additional $173-million. 

Altogether, he says the two combined would provide about 55-percent of the state funding the U of I received last year.

The U of I Board of Trustees are scheduled to meet May 18 and 19 in Springfield.