Exercising his line-item-veto power, Gov. Rick Perry cut nearly $570 million from the proposed 2008-2009 state budget last week.
Although most of the budgetary reductions were in response to federal Medicaid refunds, state university funding was also in Perry's cross hairs.
Perry slashed proposed funding for "special items," or earmarks, at universities across the state by nearly 30 percent. He cut funding for diabetes and obesity research, as well as over $5 million from Texas Tech University, Texas State University and the University of Houston. The UT System was not affected as heavily as other systems in the state.
Perry's cuts, which added up to about $36 million in special-item spending for higher-education institutions, trimmed funding from what he termed "pet pork projects."
But after shooting down nearly $36 million in appropriated funds for universities statewide, Perry called for $100 million in incentive funding that would, in theory, be distributed based on graduation rates.
"I was disappointed to see that the governor cut what he described as 'pork' from the budget," said State Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin. "Especially in higher education."
Also taking a hit were community colleges around the state. Perry eliminated a budget item that would have given community college employees $154 million in state benefits, reasoning that community college employees are not state employees and are thus not eligible for state benefits.
Despite the seemingly large cuts, the proposed budget calls for an 11-percent increase over last year's spending, which left the state with around $7 billion left over, the highest surplus ever.
Most of the money eliminated, however, was associated with refunding the federal Medicare Part D program. However, Naishtat said that the cut won't do much good, because the money will still have to be paid, and will probably appear on the next budget.
"It's going to be up to the 81st Legislature to make up for the cut in two years," he said.
Perry did not respond to phone calls for comment Monday.
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