The Kansas Board of Regents will meet this week to decide how to cut an estimated $114.4 million from the state’s higher education system over the next two years.
Due to an expected decline in revenues, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has asked state agencies to develop budgets with a 3% cut in the current fiscal year and another 4% cut in fiscal 2010. In addition, she asked the regents to cut $36.8 million of program and capital spending at institutions of higher learning.
“We face a challenging situation,” Sebelius said in a Nov. 5 memo to the directors of all state agencies. “We have accomplished much over the last five years, and now we must adjust to a changing economy.”
The cuts in capital spending could include $15 million for deferred maintenance projects on state university campuses. That would eliminate the third year of a five-year plan that began in 2007 to maintain and upgrade campus buildings.
Also expected to be postponed is a $15 million expansion of the University of Kansas pharmacy school.
