Illinois State University President Larry Dietz is telling the campus community 'thanks' to lawmakers for the stopgap spending bill, but things still aren't great.
In a campus wide e-mail Dietz notes ISU starts off the current fiscal year the same way it did last year with no budget. And spokesman Jay Groves says the stopgap measure is still an eleven million dollar cut.
"Our austerity measures will stay in place. We will continue to seek attrition and vacancies and we will continue to hold our spending close and push back timelines on construction projects that aren't safety-related. That will all continue," Groves said.
In his statement, Dietz also said the piecemeal approach to the budget does not forecast a future of predictable and appropriate state investment in higher education. Groves said it's still an eleven million dollar cut.
"The two stopgap budgets that were passed, one in late April and the one yesterday (Thursday) provided ISU with about $59.2 million. If you look at that, just from a fiscal year '16 perspective, that would be about 82 percent of the funding from FY '15," Groves added.
President Dietz did single out Bloomington Republican State Representative Dan Brady for special thanks.
Earlier versions of the stopgap measure offered ISU less money and Dietz said Brady worked for more equitable distribution among higher education institutions.
Until there is a full FY '17 budget, Dietz said any salary increase discussions will have to stay on hold.
