UA News

Statement from The University of Arizona:
 
The budget bill passed this week by the Arizona Legislature clearly violates a major provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and if enacted would disqualify Arizona from receiving nearly $1 billion in federal stimulus funds.
 
The legislative budget, unlike the proposal brought forward earlier by Governor Brewer, attempts to seize funds from the auxiliaries of the state's three public universities. These funds are not state-appropriated and come from non-state sources such as student payments for textbooks and campus housing. Members of the Legislature were presented with legal opinions that show these sweeps to be illegal. 
 
Combined with a rollover of $100 million in university funding from FY09 to the FY11 budget, the legislative bill would reduce funding to the universities to a point that is significantly below the 2006 level. The Maintenance of Effort (MOE) provision of ARRA stipulates that to receive the federal stimulus money, the state cannot reduce university funding below the 2006 level. The legislative budget clearly does that, attempting to mask some of the reduction through the sweep of the auxiliary funds. This attempt to dodge the federal requirements is a violation of ARRA, and by including this in the budget it passed, the Legislature will dramatically exacerbate the state's budget deficit by making Arizona  ineligible to receive the federal stimulus funding.
 
In the current fiscal year, The University of Arizona has absorbed $77 million in budget cuts. University officials have made plans to deal with an additional reduction in the next fiscal year. If the state were to lose federal stimulus funding because of the budget currently put forward by the Legislature, the consequences would be catastrophic for the citizens of Arizona.