Jindal, 4 ex-governors meet

• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jun 12, 2009 - Page: 1A

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Four former Louisiana governors met with Gov. Bobby Jindal in a rare gathering Thursday to express their concerns about Jindal’s proposed budget cuts to higher education.

Jindal promised afterward to reduce the pending cuts from 15 percent of state funds for colleges to less than 10 percent, although he did not provide many details.

Former governors Kathleen Blanco, Mike Foster, Buddy Roemer and Dave Treen had drafted a letter stating their opposition to the level of cuts. Jindal then requested the unusual meeting with all of the state’s governors except the incarcerated Edwin Edwards.

“We need to give higher education the time to make the changes they need to restructure, to become more efficient, to become more effective,” Jindal said at a news briefing after the private meeting.

“We wanted to make sure that our voices were clearly understood that education — including higher education — must be the state’s No. 1 priority,” Blanco said of the Roemer-led effort. “And when you’re making something a priority, you do everything you can to protect its funding.”

Jindal initially proposed cutting $219 million from colleges during a time of declining state revenue. Reducing the cut by close to $80 million would bring it just below 10 percent. Jindal mentioned reducing the cuts by $100 million as one possibility.

But Jindal also said he thinks upcoming 5 percent tuition increases at colleges statewide should be counted as reductions to the budget cuts.

Higher education officials and the nonprofit advocacy group Council for A Better Louisiana disagree.

With more than $30 million in extra revenues from tuition factored in, then Jindal could get the cuts below 10 percent just with adding $50 million in state rainy day funds — to be replenished by tax amnesty revenues — that was supported by Jindal and the state House.

Jindal said the $50 million or other measures could be done through a funds bill outside of the state’s budget bill — House Bill 1 — which was approved Thursday without those dollars.

College officials, CABL and business groups have requested the cuts be reduced by at least $110 million, not counting tuition revenues.

“It remains to be seen whether there’s real progress or not,” said CABL President Barry Erwin after the governors met. “It’s still not clear to me what constitutes 10 percent.”

State Commission of Higher Education Sally Clausen said, “It would be helpful if we were not cutting our budgets while we are planning how to cut our budgets.”