Inside Higher Ed on Illinois budget woes
Waiting for Cash in Illinois
January 6, 2010
It’s easier to promise money than to pay it out. That’s the tough lesson being learned in Illinois, where revenue shortfalls have left public colleges with a backlog of $770 million in appropriations approved by lawmakers and still undelivered.
Faced with its own backlog of $436 million, the University of Illinois System announced furlough and hiring freeze plans Tuesday that would trim $82 million from its operating budget. The effort is designed to buy the university some time as officials wait for money that few believe will arrive in full before the end of the fiscal year, June 30. Though the 2009-10 fiscal year is already half over, the Illinois system has received just 7 percent of the funds the state appropriated to it for the year that began July 1.
