RALEIGH – The University of North Carolina and the North Carolina Community College System are slated to receive budget increases of more than 10 percent in a budget proposal released Tuesday by Gov. Mike Easley.
Easley’s budget announcement, which was announced during a press conference, came on the same day legislators returned to Raleigh for the start of the short session. More information about the budget is expected to be released Monday during a Joint Appropriations Committee meeting that will include a budget briefing.
In all, Easley is recommending a state budget of $18.85 billion, up from $17.2 billion for the current fiscal year. The budget request increases spending thanks in part to a $2 billion surplus in revenues.
In a press release announcing the budget proposals, Easley said the budget aims to improve education and the state’s workforce. Including the Department of Public Instruction, Easley’s budget calls for $10.7 billion in education spending, of which $2.4 billion would go to UNC and $912 million to community colleges.
“For North Carolina to continue to [build] the highly skilled workforce necessary to attract good jobs, we must continue to make education our number one priority by investing in our schools, and most import importantly, in getting and keeping good teachers in the classroom,” Easley said in a press release.
Community College President Martin Lancaster issued a statement after the budget was released saying he was pleased with his system’s appropriations from the governor.
The community college system received an $84 million increase in funding from 2006 fiscal year levels, a total of 10.1 percent. Included in that increase was $500,000 in financial aid money for community college students in nursing programs, increases in equipment needs, and a enrollment reserve of $2 million to assist community colleges that experienced an enrollment increase of more than 5 percent the previous fall semester. Easley is also asking for a $7 million increase in enrollment growth funding for community colleges.
“This budget presented today addresses some major areas of concern: our continuing enrollment growth, increasing the salaries of faculty and professional staff on our campuses, technology enhancement, and providing the personnel that will enable our colleges to better serve our students who need tremendous support services,” Lancaster said in a prepared statement.
Easley’s budget calls for an 11 percent increase in UNC appropriations, seeking approval for a $257 million increase for the UNC system. According to Easley’s budget document, UNC will get its enrollment growth fully funded at $79 million. The budget also provides money for increases in nursing and teaching scholarships. It also appropriates $2 million for the DESTINY program at UNC-Chapel Hill. DESTINY is a traveling science laboratory that attempts to increase science knowledge for students in areas of the state.
The budget also funds several of UNC’s top budgetary priorities while leaving off some of its other requests. That includes four capital improvement projects with nonrecurring costs of more than $134 million. Those projects include North Carolina State’s Engineering Complex funding for the Centennial Campus, a new School of Nursing building for UNC-Wilmington, renovation to the North Carolina Center for Advancement of Teachers Ocracoke Island Station, and a new downtown building in Charlotte for UNC-Charlotte. The proposed UNC-Charlotte Center City Classroom Building would be mostly for graduate and professional education programs and provide space for the business, architecture, and engineering programs.
Shannon Blosser is a staff writer for the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Chapel Hill.