Trustees look at budget

A past, present and future budget comparison was the main topic of discussion on the Feb. 10 full Board of Trustees meeting.

Director of Budget and Planning Rhonda Wingfield gave a presentation to the board of detailed and general information about how the University of Toledo budgets have changed and adapted to “a tumultuous time in higher education.”

According to Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee John Szuch, the board looked at the finances from the past years and said UT has “navigated the waters pretty well.”

Szuch said the purpose of the report was to take a look at how UT has handled its financial circumstances.

“What we wanted to do here was put together a very comprehensive look at where we’ve been, how we handled the issues we’ve dealt with, what we anticipate the future will look like and take a look at some moves that we can make to continue to navigate the difficult environment that we’re in,” Szuch said.

According to the report given at the meeting, some of the challenges UT has faced include:

• A 12 percent decline in enrollment — which equivocates to a roughly $26 million loss in UT profits.

• A state share of instruction subsidy decline of 13 percent, or roughly $17 million.

• Sales and service revenue decline of 16 percent, or approximately $13 million.

• Rising healthcare and benefit cost — approximately $3 million.

The report stated that the total impact of these factors reduced income by about $60 million.

The report listed things UT management used to mitigate impacts to its budget and how UT has maintained a positive cash flow. These actions included:

• Increasing tuition and fees

• Reducing interest expense, or refinancing debt

• Reduced salaries

• Reduced capital

expenditures

• Reduced non-salary expenses

Looking forward, the report anticipated a 3 percent increase in student enrollment and a 5.5 percent investment income. UT’s budget plan for fiscal year 2016 is not yet finalized.