By
Eric Swedlund
Arizona Daily Wildcat
UA programs still funded well under current proposals
PHOENIX - Gov. Jane Hull told legislators yesterday she wants them to wait at least an additional three weeks before setting a budget so that questions can be answered in regards to murky state revenue projections.
Hull told both the Senate and House of Representatives that she is not comfortable setting a budget for the next two years without the fiscal data from April.
To date, Hull's discussion with legislative leadership has concerned revenue projections, not spending. The legislative and executive priorities are similar.
At the beginning of the session, Hull's revenue projections were $250 million below lawmakers' projections.
A revision to Hull's outlook brought her projections to about $650 million below the Joint Legislative Budget Committee's original revenue projection.
Lawmakers last week trimmed their budget recommendation to within $37 million of Hull's proposal.
The Legislature's goal was to finish the budget and submit it to the governor by the 65th day of the session, but as of yesterday, the 92nd day, a time scale for the final budget was still up in the air.
Sen. Ruth Solomon, D-Tucson, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the universities are fully funded in the legislature's budget, but whether that holds remains to be seen.
"Universities are on the governor's hit list," Solomon said.
Francie Noyes, Hull's spokeswoman, said there is no "hit list" and the governor went out of her way to include the universities in the money generated from Proposition 301.
"It's not useful to get one particular constituency up in arms," Noyes said. "The governor wants to do the sensible and conservative thing now so the Legislature doesn't have to go in later and cut somebody's budget."
Hull said problems with the budget are not due to the alternatives fuels problem and added that the impact of last year's financial mistake is to create even more caution.
"We are more determined than ever not to dig ourselves into a financial hole," Hull said.
UA lobbyist Greg Fahey said the outlook for the University of Arizona still looks bright.
"Our supporters, especially Sen. Solomon, have done as good a job as possible," Fahey said. "I'm grateful."
The most current budget proposal funds building renewal at 65 percent, down from the 100 percent recommendation in January.
Still, Fahey said the 65 percent funding is much better than the 23 percent building renewal over the last two years.
"That's still doing well," Fahey said.
Of the building renewal cut, $16 million would be coming back to the UA to cover other funding issues.
That money would go toward four areas - graduate teaching assistants, a joint UA-Pima northwest campus, a joint UA South-Cochise Community College teaching program in Sierra Vista and funding for the Arizona Health Sciences Phoenix campus.
"It's coming down to the wire and it is a little murky," Fahey said. "Our top priorities will be under this arrangement."
Cut entirely from the state budget would be funding for the Center for Neurogenic Disorders. The Program in Integrative Medicine still has a "slight chance" at seeing state money, Fahey said.
Still in the budget proposal is $2.5 million for digital television conversion. That is less than half the UA's cost for new transmitters and equipment for convert to digital television under a federal mandate.
Fahey said the most painful part of the revised budget recommendation is cuts to funding of utilities and custodial services for new buildings and collections reduction.
"It's not over yet," Fahey said. "There are several balls in several different courts right now."
