INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana University Northwest would feel part of a 3 percent cut to higher education proposed by Gov. Mitch Daniels on Thursday, a school official said, but it's not clear how.
Indiana University spokesman Larry MacIntyre said the loss of about $20 million from the state would be spread across all of the university's campuses, including the one in Gary.
"I'm not able to tell you how that will translate to IU Northwest," MacIntyre said.
The cut is included in a two-year state budget now in the hands of the House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee. The House and the Senate must approve the budget. Both are controlled by the Republican governor's party.
Indiana Budget Director Adam Horst said the proposed budget generally maintains spending at levels they fell to after recent cuts.
For example, K-12 education spending took a 3 percent annual hit since the General Assembly last approved a budget. The new budget would not return K-12 to pre-cut levels, but it wouldn't reduce K-12 spending beyond the cut, either.
One exception to Indiana's "flatline" approach would be higher education, which already took a 6 percent annual cut since the last budget. Horst suggested it take another 3 percent cut, which amounts to about $37 million annually.
The state would spend $18.4 million at Indiana University Northwest in 2011-12, according to the proposal, compared to an estimated $19.13 million in 2010-11. For 2012-13, it would spend $18.6 million at IUN.
MacIntyre said the proposed cut would cost IU about $20 million overall out of about $500 million it gets from Indiana. The school isn't being caught off guard, though, and he said IU's president has been cutting costs to prepare for a "very tight" two years.
They include centralized purchasing and reducing staff through attrition.
"I don't think it's going to be traumatic, simply because we've had two years to get ready for it," MacIntyre said.
Cuts are also proposed at Purdue University Calumet in Hammond and Purdue University North Central in Westville. The state would spend $27.4 million at PUC in 2011-12 and 2012-13, compared to an estimated $28.2 million in 2010-11.
"A 3 percent cut would be very disappointing, but if that's the end result, we'll strive to continue moving forward. Certainly, we would have some hard decisions to make, but our objectives would remain the same," said PUC Assistant Vice Chancellor Wes Lukoshus.
At PUNC, it would spend $12.23 million in 2011-12 and 2012-13, compared with an estimated $12.29 million in 2010-11.
Horst said state money makes up little more than 20 percent of the universities' budgets.
They could more than make up for the loss, he said, by joining the state's health care plan.
Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville and chair of the Senate's appropriations committee, took note of that.
"This is going to be somewhat of a bitter pill for the universities to take another 3 percent cut," Kenley said to Horst. "But you're suggesting that, at the same time, that there may be a remedy that doesn't require we just raise tuition?"
Horst said the universities should "take a close look" but didn't suggest the General Assembly mandate that decision. The administration does want the legislature to require universities' participation in a purchasing cooperative for pharmaceuticals already in place for state employees.
MacIntyre said IU hasn't yet considered the state's general health care plan.
"We are in the process of doing a number of things to try to reduce our health care costs," MacIntyre said. "I don't know how they would compare to the state."