Senate panel reduces USF cut, but it still stands at $103 million

Florida senators shaved away a portion of the cut they planned to impose on the University of South Florida, but approved a budget plan Wednesday that still leaves the university $103 million poorer.

A day-long meeting by the Senate Budget Committee on Florida's overall budget for next year was punctuated by heated debate about USF, which is taking a bigger hit than the other universities.

USF sounded the alarm about the proposed cuts on Monday night, and the calls and emails flooded into lawmakers' offices from alumni, students and business supporters.

Sen. Jim Norman, a Tampa Republican, advocated most aggressively for USF on Wednesday, angering committee chairman JD Alexander with the charge that the Senate was balancing the budget "on the backs of students. … You don't bargain futures like this."

Norman and Sen. Arthenia Joyner, a Tampa Democrat, ended up persuading committee members to remove a provision that would have taken another $25 million from USF in costs related to the creation of a new university in Polk County.

Norman commended Alexander and Sen. Evelyn Lynn, an Ormond Beach Republican and higher education budget committee chairwoman, for their "good faith."

USF is grateful, said spokesman Michael Hoad, but the move "is only a step in the right direction. … The Senate cuts remain devastating to USF."

Under the proposal, USF's Tampa campus would lose $79 million as part of sweeping cuts that would take from 12 percent to 34 percent from each of the 11 universities.

Unlike the other universities, however, USF will take an additional $24 million hit in a Senate effort to close USF Polytechnic to create the new Polk university. The plan shifts current Polytechnic students, staff and faculty to the USF budget.

The committee had also proposed to hold in reserve $25 million of USF's funding to ensure it cooperated in the new university plan, which would transfer all of USF Polytechnic assets to the new school. That's the piece Norman and Joyner persuaded senators to withdraw on Wednesday.

Overall, USF stands to lose about 40 percent of its state funding.

Alexander said the senators were only trying to draw on the universities' "unobligated cash," noting repeatedly that USF has more than $163 million and that its operations won't be affected.

"Do we leave it in those checking accounts or do we use it to meet the needs of the state?" he asked.

But Hoad said the Senate's total for USF includes money it doesn't have access to – the reserves of USF Health and USF's campuses in St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and Lakeland.

USF Tampa's reserves are projected to be only about $77 million next year. And that money is not lying around uncommitted, he said. USF uses much of it to pay adjunct and part-time instructors.

Without it, "programs for students will be significantly affected."

Senators didn't clearly explain how they arrived at each university's cut. Lynn said they focused mostly on tapping the reserves, but she didn't reconcile why Florida State University, for instance, is only being cut by $55 million even though it has projected reserves of $135 million.

Like USF, some universities will be tapped out by the cut. Florida International University's projected reserves are about $41 million, while under the Senate plan it loses $55 million.

Lynn said the universities will be able to make up for the losses with tuition increases.

She also said these were one-time reductions that would be restored next year, though the Legislature has no authority to require that of next year's lawmakers.

Dozens of USF students traveled to Tallahassee to ask the senators to spare USF. Several complained about tuition, which as been on the rise for the past four years as Florida tries to meet the nation average.

"Tuition has been going up since I have been in college, and students cannot bear it any more," especially with threats of more cuts, said USF Student Body President Matt Diaz.

Several of the senators, including Lynn, scolded Diaz and the others who spoke, noting that in the past university and student government leaders asked for tuition increases.

"That doesn't mean it's right now, in 2012," one student responded.

Despite the protests, the committee approved the overall Senate budget, which will be heard on the Senate floor next week.

Several senators, including Republicans Paula Dockery of Lakeland and Mike Fasano of New Port Richey, are expected to protest the USF cuts. They're also against the plan to establish the new university immediately, which circumvents a state Board of Governors plan to gradually build up USF Polytechnic to an independent institution.

Several members of the state House of Representatives have also made their objections clear, including incoming House Speaker Will Weatherford, a Wesley Chapel Republican.

The House proposes university cuts, too, in the budget it has adopted, but they're smaller – about 9 percent for USF.