Governor Jay Nixon will not be seeking money from the state’s largest universities to help balance the budget.
Governor Jay Nixon addressed questions from the media following the Governor's Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning.
In December word circulated that the Nixon Administration was floating an idea to take $106 million from the reserves of five Missouri universities to support the higher education operating budget. Nixon says now, “That’s off the table.”
Nixon says the idea was merely one of many that was thrown around early in considering how to address what his budget director says is a $500 million gap between revenues and expenses in the fiscal year 2013 budget. “There were a series of ideas…remain a series of ideas…about how you get to a balanced number. Contained within those was the thought that perhaps instead of expending additional dollars on bricks and mortar, that those dollars could be put in the classroom, and that would be something that would make a difference in the short run here with the budget challenge.”
The Governor says he will continue to look for ways to put money into K-12 public school, college and university classrooms. He says what cust have to occur will come from administration.
Nixon will reveal his proposed fiscal year 2013 budget and other priorities in his State of the State Address, Tuesday January 17 at 7 p.m. A spokesman for the Governor says he will not discuss any more about his fiscal plan until then.