Gov. Gretchen Whitmer increases CMU's state funding for the 2019-20 academic year
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Central Michigan University will receive more state funding this academic year.
President Bob Davies said the university received $1.81 million – just over a 2 percent increase of total state allocations during an academic senate meeting Oct. 8.
After more than three months of budget battles between the governor and Republican lawmakers, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed 16 bills on Sept. 30 that created the budget for the state of Michigan, using line-item veto power 147 times.
Because the Governer's office had delayed approval of the state budget, CMU had built its operating budget for the 2019-20 academic year with no anticipated increase in state allocations. CMU's consolidated budget was over $479.9 million in total revenue and expenditures for the 2018-19 academic year.
Whitmer originally pushed for a 3 percent across-the-board increase based on each university's fiscal year 2018-19 operations funding.
Instead, she approved a 0.5 percent increase to public university operations, which was distributed to each state university. CMU received almost 7 percent of the $7.9 million increase.
In addition to operational budget allocations, Whitmer approved a $6.7 million addition to the North American Indian Tuition Waiver Funding pool, which makes tuition free for Native American students. CMU received an additional $1.28 million from this pool of funds.
Davies told academic senate that CMU received one of the largest funding increases in the state.
"This was a major draw for us. Only one (other university) received an over two percent increase, which was Lake Superior State University. All the other universities received a lot lower than us," Davies said.
Increases in operational budget funding for each Michigan public university were:
- Eastern Michigan: 0.7 percent
- Ferris State: 2 percent
- Grand Valley: 1.8 percent
- Lake Superior State: 2.7 percent
- Michigan State: 0.9 percent
- Michigan Tech: 1.2 percent
- Northern: 1.9 percent
- Oakland: 1.2 percent
- Saginaw Valley: 0.9 percent
- UM Ann Arbor: 0.6 percent
- Wayne State: 0.5 percent
- Western: 1 percent
