Western Kentucky University president Gary Ransdell says the school will tap into the University Reserve Fund to meet mandated budget cuts ordered by Gov. Matt Bevin.
Bevin ordered an immediate 4.5% cut to all higher education funding. For WKU, that amounts to a little over $3.3 million.
In an email to WKU faculty and staff Monday afternoon, Ransdell wrote the timing of the budget cuts left him with no other choice but to take the money from the Reserve Fund. "Given the lateness in the fiscal year and the extraordinary circumstances that would be required of the campus to reduce campus operating budgets that have already been obligated," he wrote, " we have decided the best course of action is to seek approval at the April Board of Regents' meeting to draw down the University Reserve Fund to carry us through the end of the fiscal year."
The Fund would then be replenished with, what Ransdell called, "appropriate non-recurring budget actions."
The WKU President emphasized this would be a one time draw on the funds, not a recurring cut to the University's base budget.
House and Senate leaders are at a deadlock in budget negotiations in Frankfort. Senate Republicans agree, for the most part, with Gov. Bevin on instituting the cuts to higher education and using the money to begin paying off the state's pension funds debt. House Democrats take the position those obligations can be met without the cuts.
The legislature is adjourned until April 12th with no new budget talks scheduled between now and then. If a budget isn't passed by then, Bevin would most likely have to call a special legislative session to pass a budget before the end of the fiscal year on June 30th to keep most of state government operating.
Special sessions cost taxpayers about $70,000 a day.