By SUSAN JONES
The state budget impasse shows no signs of ending anytime soon, and Pitt will soon need to make some decisions, even if the state legislature doesn’t.
“We almost always have a tuition schedule published by now,” said Hari Sastry, Pitt’s chief financial officer. “For the students and families to not know what the tuition is for the upcoming year — especially because the reason is because the funding that’s uncertain here goes … toward that discount to them — that’s really the challenge here. From a budgetary standpoint, we are kind of making sure we’re bridging the gap even without those funds, but that can’t go on indefinitely.”
The general funding that Pitt gets from the state all goes toward discounting in-state tuition, which adds up to about $16,000 annually per student. The state money supports 60 percent of this discount; Pitt covers the remaining 40 percent. Under Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal, Pitt would receive a 7 percent budget increase this year — $162.3 million in general support and $3.6 million for rural education outreach in 2023-24.
Both the state House and Senate have approved a $45.5 billion spending plan, but before the governor can approve the bill, it needs to be signed by the presiding officer of the state Senate. Republicans, who control the Senate, recently announced the Senate will not return to session until September and have given no indication that the spending bill will be signed before then.
Further complicating the process is the resignation of Sara Innamorato (D-Allegheny) from the state House this week to focus on her campaign for Allegheny County executive. Her departure leaves the Democrats and Republicans tied at 101 members each in the House.
“It’s a dynamic and unprecedented situation in many ways, which creates a lot of uncertainty,” said David Brown, vice chancellor for government relations and advocacy. “What we do know is that both chambers of the Pennsylvania legislature are in recess until September 26 and the special election to fill Rep. Sarah Innamorato’s seat will take place on September 19. Of course, leadership could recall members at any time. Our team is working closely with leadership in Harrisburg and working hard to advocate on behalf of our students and University community.”
The main stumbling block holding up budget passage appears to be a school voucher program supported by Republicans and initially backed by Shapiro. Late in the budget cycle, the governor said he would line-item veto the $100 million approved for the voucher program after it met resistance in the Democratic-controlled House.
With fall classes set to start on Aug. 28, Pitt’s Board of Trustees will likely need to act on tuition without knowing the amount of money the University will receive from the state. Sastry said he is meeting with trustees on July 26, when they are likely to set tuition. They also could pass an entire budget, including the salary pool for raises, but this is less likely.
“We have to set tuition rates because we need to tell our students what the rates are going to be,” Sastry said. “We don’t want to put students in harm’s way because the appropriation is uncertain right now. We’re going to have to make some assumption on that appropriation coming through in some way.”
He said that Pitt is in good financial shape and will use money it planned to spend later in the year to cover the tuition discount during the budget impasse. If the state appropriation comes through and the trustees approve salary increases, then the raises would be retroactive to July, Sastry said.
Last year, tuition increased 3.5 percent for in-state undergraduate and all graduate students and 5.5 percent for out-of-state undergraduates in Oakland. The pay-raise pool for 2022-23 was 3.25 percent, with an additional 1 percent available for market, inequities and merit. This came after a salary freeze in 2020-21 and 1 to 1.5 percent increases in 2021-22.
New chancellor, old problem
Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel, who started on July 17, may be new to Pitt, but one of the first problems she’s facing is an old one — waiting on the state to pass its budget, along with the appropriation for Pitt and the three other state-related universities.
“Ideally, the budget would have been finished and we would have transitioned with that set,” Gabel said last week. “That’s not going to happen, and this is the nature of the work. … It’s not like these things don’t happen. I think my role (on the budget issues) will depend on the decisions that are made in Harrisburg around what they’re going to do to get the budget over the finish line. We’ll respond accordingly — just pick up the baton wherever they place it and go from there.”
Gabel has had phone-call meetings with Gov. Shapiro and some legislative committee chairs, “and everyone’s been lovely,” she said.
Higher education funding
Even if the voucher issue is resolved, the bill providing funding for the four state-related universities — Pitt, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln — has so far failed to get the two-thirds majority votes needed on two separate attempts to pass it. Lincoln’s funding was approved when it was voted on separately, after the school agreed to freeze tuition if it got the increased funding, but now its funding is lumped into a bill with the three other state-related schools.
Republicans in both chambers are upset that Pitt, Penn State and Temple won’t commit to a tuition freeze if they receive the 7 percent funding increase requested by the governor, and they want more transparency about how the schools spend the money.
Other public schools in the state are moving ahead with their tuition rates and budgets.
Last week, Temple’s Board of Trustees approved a roughly 4.2 percent tuition increase for in-state students and 4.4 percent for out of state. Temple held tuition rates flat during 2019-20 and 2020-21. Temple also is reducing its budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year by 4 percent.
On July 20, the Penn State Board of Trustees Committee on Finance, Business and Capital Planning approved a 2 percent tuition hike for in-state undergraduates at the University Park campus each of the next two academic years, but kept tuition the same for students at the Commonwealth Campuses. The committee also approved operating budgets of $9.5 billion and $9.6 billion, respectively, for the next two years. The full Board of Trustees was set to vote on the plan the afternoon of July 21.
Because of the budget impasse, Penn State will use other resources to cover in-state tuition costs until state funding is approved. The university is putting a temporary hold on planned funding for general salary increases and its compensation modernization initiative until the impasse in Harrisburg is resolved.
The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Board of Governors on July 20 voted to freeze tuition for the 2023-24 academic year in the hopes that the $585.6 million included in the state budget for the 14 schools remains unchanged.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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