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really is, one does build upon the other.”
Chairwoman Hightman said, “Great presentation. For those of you who understand the budgeting
process and the amount of time that goes into preparing a normal budget, you know it is a big endeavor
and asking Mike and his team to prepare five of them really put a lot of pressure on him and his staff. I
want to thank Mike and all the folks that work with him for doing the yeoman’s job in getting this done. I
know it was a lot of work, and there is more work that we have to do, and we recognize that. But your
tenacity and willingness to fight the fight with us and to be creative, I think really paid off. We have a
great product that I am proud of, and I am hoping the whole Board is proud of. So, I want to thank you
for that.”
Father Minogue said, “The irrationality of this is extraordinary. It has been my experience that
often people fund things on the basis of emotions, and so the typical trick in a budget is you put all your
new computers, your car, and everything else in the base budget, then you put the infant formula as the
thing you need to complete the budget. So, I would recommend that we have a couple of things that
nobody can deny that we dig out to augment whatever people decide just in case the level does not sound
right. I do not think we will get level five. We may, but I do not think so. But we might have a few
others that tug on the heartstrings.”
Mr. Bergman said, “I would like to point out one other thing that may help us get closer. Looking
at page 17, that is the NIU budget that we looked at yesterday. Let us say that I am in the legislature, and
I am thinking about who is going to get, not which universities, but who is going to get what money. I am
thinking that there is $1.4 billion in unpaid state bills and supposedly getting worse. I am thinking that
the state is behind in making pension fund contributions. I am thinking that from what has, at least I have
heard recently, the revenue expected for this current year is not going to equal what was planned maybe
because of the recession that we may not be in, I do not know. But we are going to go even further in the
hole in the current fiscal year. So, I am a legislator looking at that, and then I look at page 17 and what I
am looking at has a combination of general fund support, university income funds, and other revenue for
the university, and it totals up and shows the increases and a percentage. And I look at step one, which is
zero additional funding from the state, I look over on the right hand side at the bottom, and the total
revenue that is going to increase for this university is 5.8 percent. I look at step two, which is a one
percent increase in state funding, and I look at the total revenue increase, and it is 6.1 percent or twice the
rate of inflation. I look at step three, which is a 2.8 percent increase in state funding, and the total revenue
increases to 6.5 percent. So, I am in the legislature, and I am looking at this, and with one percent
increase in funding from the state, Northern is going to have a 6.1 percent increase in total revenue, twice
the rate of inflation. If I increase the state funding from one percent to 2.8 percent, the total revenue is
going to go up from a 6.1 percent increase to a 6.5 percent increase. This format, I believe, will do more
harm than good. So, I believe in the five steps, I understand what you are trying to accomplish, and I
agree with that. I think that the format needs to be changed so that it enhances what we are trying to
accomplish here, and I question whether this will.”
Chairwoman Hightman said, “It is too bad we did not have you on the Board earlier so that you
could have been more involved in the process in the beginning, but you just got on board, so you are
getting an issue as you find it as it is. We understand that. What I would say is this is a work-in-progress.
This is our best effort given the time constraints within which we are all operating to do five budgets at
one time. What I said, and I think everyone understands this who has been doing this for longer than you
have, is that we have a lot of work ahead of us. And so I think the comments that you are giving us will
help us for the next steps because the next steps, I think, are the critical steps in really advocating on
behalf of this proposal and doing what we are required to do as the Board of Higher Education. So, I
think we look forward to getting your comments, your input, and suggestions on some other format for
