Swift plan cuts $3.5m from system

by Daniel J. Fitzgibbons, Chronicle staff

he process of fashioning a fiscal 2003 state budget had its official kickoff last week as Acting Gov. Jane Swift outlined her proposed $23.5 billion spending plan and reiterated her steadfast opposition to any delay in a series of voter-approved income tax rollbacks.

     While Swift's budget proposal calls for an overall 2.7 percent increase in state spending, funding for higher education would be reduced by $14 million, including a $3.5 million cut in the University system's current allocation of $464.2 million.

     The governor's bill hinges on a projected 5 percent growth in tax revenue, an estimate which critics say is overly optimistic. She also favors spending $750 million, or 50 percent, of the state $1.5 billion "rainy day fund," and reducing lottery prizes to free up another $274 million. Swift's plan also factors in a projected $136 million savings from the statewide early retirement program and $134 million in delayed payments to the state pension fund.

     Virtually all of the growth outlined in the governor's plan would go to Medicaid, though K-12 education funding would also gain.

     Meanwhile University officials are still trying to close a budget shortfall triggered by a $25 million cut in funding this year. Along with an emergency fee increase approved in December, campus officials are moving to trim 270 jobs across the system. In Amherst, 95 professional, classified and graduate student employees face layoffs as the administration attempts to bridge a $15 million funding gap.

     According to the President's Office, the Swift package would keep funding for Commonwealth College and the Toxic Use Reduction Institute at Lowell at approximately this year's levels. Swift also is recommending $3.5 million for the Dartmouth campus' Star Store renovation project, an increase of $1.1 million over this year. The governor also favors setting aside a $1.1 million for another Dartmouth campus initiative, the Advanced Technology Center in Fall River.

     Swift did not include any funding for the endowed faculty chair program.

     Comparatively, the University would fare better than the state and community colleges under Swift's proposed budget. The governor's plan call for reducing funding for the state colleges by nearly $17 million or 8.1 percent, while the community colleges' funding would be cut by more than $17.3 million or 7.4 percent.

     Locally, Swift's reductions would mean a $712,000 cut at Greenfield Community College and the loss of $1.4 million at Holyoke Community College. Westfield State College stands to lose nearly $1.9 million.

     The governor's spending bill also includes a $2.8 million increase in state scholarship funding and level-funding of the Library Reserve at $5 million. The Board of Higher Education faces a $111,021 cut under the Swift plan.

     Even as several Democratic challengers to Swift decried her budget proposal as unworkable or based on faulty assumptions, the picture grew murkier as Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the voter-approved Clean Elections Law be funded or removed from the books. The issue is expected to back to court this week.