With the special legislative session coming to a close this weekend, Louisiana representative Jerome “Dee” Richard provided his insight on the future of higher education and the current budget crisis.

“The Legislature deserves blame for allowing Gov. Jindal to cut higher education over $700 million over the last seven years. Instead of voting for budgets that were balanced illegally with the use of one-time funds, the

Legislature should have taken a stand against phony budgets,” Jerome “Dee” Richard, Louisiana Representative, district 55, said.

Over the last eight years, under Jindal, the system of higher education has been subject to major budget cuts, raising the question of how to maintain funding for higher education.
Richard said, “The budget was $16 billion eight years ago and for the last five years it stood at $25 billion. We have enough revenue in this state to fund higher education just as we did when Gov. Jindal came in. Jindal did not prioritize higher education and instead crucified them with massive cuts.”

As for the necessary steps to rectify these “massive cuts,” Gov. John Bel Edwards has proposed a plan involving tax increases.

“I believe we have a spending problem because we still spend more than we take in. I am not in support of the governor’s plan because it’s sending the message to the taxpayers that they are to blame when, in fact, it was the legislature’s irresponsibility for allowing Jindal to cut higher education. I am fighting to cut spending as we speak so as to help revenue, but I want to make sure we prioritize our spending before voting on any tax on our taxpayers,” Richard said.

The legislature’s failure to comply with Edwards’ tax increases could have serious ramifications to the UL System, which is still looking at an $808,803 cut including the governor’s implemented tax increases.

On Feb. 10, Nicholls State University provided a “single sentence document” to the UL System, where complete shutdown was the only option in such a scenario. However, University President Bruce Murphy ensured that “Nicholls has no intention of closing…other options submitted in the University’s contingency plan will not be released until there is a definite amount for the budget cuts. That was only one data pull, one data request.”

Currently, lawmakers are in special three-week session where they will attempt to come up with $870 million by June 30. TOPS has already been cut 20 percent for this year, and adjustments in award distributions and eligibility are likely.

Richard said, “We need to possibly look at capping TOPS because I don’t believe they will ever reduce tuition if and when state support is restored.”

While higher education still remains on the forefront of the issues, the future of Nicholls and the rest of Louisiana colleges and universities will be determined at the conclusion of this three week session on Sunday.

“I am a believer in making higher education our number one priority by properly funding it, but we have got to solve our problem of spending more than we take in, and going to the taxpayers and blaming them is wrong,” Richard said.