Nancy Simpson of KTTS contributed to this story
Budget restrictions to higher education will mean more than $6 million sliced from Missouri State University’s bottom line. MSU President Clif Smart says the school has enough in reserve to cover the 7.2% shortfall for 2017, but if more cuts are announced for next year, a tuition increase and job cuts would likely come into play.
Missouri State University President Clif Smart – Image courtesy of MSU
“That’s premature, though. We don’t know if they (the cuts) are on-going nor do we know that’s the extent of the cuts we are going to receive. We’ll have to have that discussion in February,” says Smart.
Governor Eric Greitens (R) is restricting more than $146 million in the current fiscal year’s budget, with about $80 million from higher education. Greitens says about $700 million in budget cuts are likely during the next 18 months to balance the budget.
Smart says Greitens inherited a bad budget and understands that cuts have to be made.
Greitens will announce his Fiscal Year 2018 budget proposal next month.
Shortly after Greitens releases his budget plan, MSU will hold a town hall meeting to share information, get input from and review the process to make decisions on how to handle short-term withholdings and the potential for long-term budget reductions.
Missouri State University is located in Springfield.
