Gov. Bill Ritter today presented the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee with an updated plan that closes a $271.4 million, recession-induced shortfall in the state’s current Fiscal Year 2009-10 budget.

The plan includes about a dozen actions, the single largest of which is a $145 million General Fund reduction to higher education. This reduction will be completely offset and backfilled by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Ritter said. The plan also utilizes $45 million in Recovery Act State Fiscal Stabilization Funds to help offset the overall budget shortfall.

Metro State President Stephen Jordan said, "While we don't know how the additional $145 million will be applied,we have been assured that it will be backfilled with Recovery Act funds."

The Governor will submit his FY10-11 budget proposal to the JBC on Nov. 6.

“The FY10-11 budget will be even more challenging than the current 09-10 budget, because the revenue recovery always lags the economic recovery,” Ritter said.

This latest reduction comes on the heels of the $150 million reduction to the higher ed budget for this fiscal year and next that already is being backfilled by one-time stimulus money. Metro State’s share of this cut is $10 million, or 20 percent of its operating budget, which will occur when the stimulus funds run out at the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year. To prepare for that eventuality, President Stephen Jordan instituted a plan to use the stimulus money to fund 37 “right-sizing” with technology projects. Those projects were culled from a list of suggestions submitted by the five divisions of the College and approved by the Board of Trustees as its Sept. 2 meeting. (To view the list of projects click here.)

Jordan plans to host an all-campus town meeting after the Governor releases the budget proposal for FY10-11.

All budget updates will be communicated through upcoming@Metro Special Editions.