Currents at USM

Legislative Update

If requests for the University of Maine System pending before the Legislature succeed, USM stands to benefit, but the requests have not yet reached a final form. In addition, the budget proposed by Governor Angus King falls far short of the amounts in the System’s request.

A key component of the University System's request will be a bill authorizing a statewide bond issue for facilities.
It's essential to USM’s plans that the bond proposed by the System include $9.5 million to build a community education center/parking garage on the current Bedford St. parking lot in Portland. Planning calls for a 500-seat auditorium as well as meeting space and some classrooms. The proposed facility includes a parking garage that would provide more than 600 additional spaces. The total pricetag for this facility is estimated at $15 million. Private funds and increased parking fees would bridge the gap between the $9.5 in bond monies and the total cost.

A second part of the University System request is funds for Research and Development. R&D expenditures to date have increased our research capacity in such areas as biotechnology and the information sciences, and USM hopes to maintain that momentum. The University System request totaled $10 million in operating expenses, and $25 million in capital expenditures. The Governor's budget, as it now stands, would result in a smaller facility than USM has planned to house the new Bioscience Research Institute.

Finally, the System is advocating for a higher percentage increase for general operating expenses than the 2.5 percent increase recommended by the Governor. Each one percentage point jump means an additional $300,000 for USM in operating support that cam help keep tuition low, provide fair and equitable compensation, and allow USM to maintain the growth and development of recent years.

The Appropriations Committee is now considering Gov. King's proposed two-year state budget in light of the $250 million gap between projected revenues and expenditures that was identified earlier this year. The revenue picture has gone from bad to worse thanks to an additional budget gap, estimated to be as much as $50+ million.

In his recent "State of the University" address to the Legislature, Chancellor Terry MacTaggart said he hoped the state would not return to the higher ed funding policies in place during the tough economic times of the late 80s and early 90s. "I don't want in any way to minimize the bleakness of those times or the difficulty of the choices. But, knowing what we know today, why on earth would we make the climb out of the recession steeper by limiting access to the very tools that prepare us for a brighter future?" he said.

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