UM could get more money

A committee of lawmakers from both houses of the Missouri General Assembly will decide today whether to include an additional $2.9 million for the UM system in this year's budget.

By Jedd Rosche

Published April 25, 2006

A committee of lawmakers from both houses of the Missouri General Assembly will decide today whether to include an additional $2.9 million for the UM system in this year's budget.

If the extra money is included, the UM system would receive a total of approximately $412 million from the state this year. The Senate added the money during its budget deliberations last week.

The conference committee that will debate the additional funds includes members of the House budget and Senate appropriations committees.

Sen. Joan Bray, D-St. Louis, said the Senate proposed the increase for specific capital building projects at two of the UM system campuses.

"For example, there's $200,000 going to an ethics program at UM-St. Louis and more funding for anesthesiology studies for UM-Kansas City," Bray said.

She said the majority of the addition was going to UMSL.

Bray, who is a member of the appropriations committee and will take part in the conference committee, said there are a number of discrepancies to work out between the House and Senate budgets.

Bray said outside of the extra UM system funding, there were larger differences between the two houses over community college funding and construction projects.

Bray said five senators will sit on the conference committee.

Rep. Allen Icet, R-Wildwood, who is the chairman of the House budget committee, did not return phone calls Monday afternoon.

Nikki Krawitz, UM system vice president for finance and administration, said legislators had made no attempts to contact her department.

Krawitz said the $17 million funding increase proposed by Gov. Matt Blunt and included in both the House and Senate budgets offsets increases in mandatory costs, including employee healthcare and building maintenance. Krawitz said much of the UM system's financial planning is based on the increase.

UM system spokesman Joe Moore said university officials are satisfied so far with the House's budget process.

"We're extremely grateful for the governor's recommendation to increase our funding by 2 percent," Moore said.

Moore would not say whether the UM system would request more funding while the conference committee was formulating the final budget.