inside 'todm
Income taxes: A few light-hearted hints about
preparing that 1040 form . . p.5
Faculty Senate: Prepares to have its first
meeting under its new representative
system.. p.2
Faculty Qub: If its membership does not s
increase, it may have to close its
doors . . p.2
daily
monday, January 19, 1976 vol. 99 no. 65
- R R H K7B If.
Analysis By Dick Piersol
The Nebraska Legislature's Appropriations Com
mittee Tuesday will have public hearings on the NU's
share of LB690, the higher education appropriation
bill. It will have another hearing on the bill Jan. 28.
The senators proposed Dec. 19 an NU appropriation
of $87.9 million tax dollars compared to $77 million last
year and a requested $100 million.
The breakdown by campus was: UNL-$35. 4 million
(including $586,000 for maintenance of the new field
house); University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO)-$6.9
million; University of Nebraska Medical Center
$21.2 million and central administration-$24.4 million.
This is contingent upon an 11 per cent tuition in
crease which would increase resident tuition by about
$2 per credit hour and non residnet -tuition by about
$5.35 per credit hour.
The committee removed from the base budget $2.8
million, $1.9 million of it for UNL, to finance increased
instructional workloads and is still at issue. That amount,
if lost, could cost the university as many as 130 faculty
positions, Interim Chancellor Adam Breckenridge told
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University lobbyist William Swanson may be praying for dollars Tuesday when the Nebraska
Legislature's Appropriations Committee has a public hearing on LB690, the state's higher education
appropriation bill.
New method used for budget issues
Legislative Appropriations Committee hearings on the
fiscal 1976-77 state budget began last week. The commit
tee met in preliminary sessions last month with agency
heads and fiscal staff to get an early start on new budget
ing procedures.
Committee chairman Sen. Richard Marvel of Hastings
said the new method is intended to deal with the basic
issues in each agency's budget, rather than simply argu
ing over how much of an increase an agency deserves.
According to legislative fiscal analysts, in past years the
fiscal staff and the governor made budget recommenda
tions, and the agencies made requests. The procedure then
was to haggle a compromise from the three figures based
upon what the state could afford to pay.
Marvel instructed the staff last month, to prepare com
putations of each agency's subsistence or base budget;
that budget would allow the agency to function under
statutory requirements.
Operating expenses increased six per cent because of
A i l i
inflation. Workload increases were reviewed, and state re
placement of lost federal funds was eliminated.
One exception was the University of Nebraska Medical
Center, where new and expanded programs were elimi
nated. Each agency was then expected to justify their
budget beyond the minimum.
Marvel stated in December that this process was to
show the agencies, recipients of state sendees, legislators
and taxpayers that an appropriation for one year does not
imply a commitment to continue the same or greater
budget levels in the future.
From Dec. 15 through 19, the committee met to
discuss issues with the agencies, not to review dollars,
according to Marvel, but to define the issues within each
budget.
In those hearings, the committee tentatively agreed to
grant ail state employes four per cent salary increases,
with another one per cent merit increase at the discretion
of the agency head.
I r
aaaiiionai money proposed top
Nebraska Academy of Sciences
A $5,000 addition to the State Dept. of Education
budget, earmarked for the Nebraska Academy of Sciences,
was proposed Friday in legislative hearings by Norman
Otto, administrative assistant to Gov. J. James Exon, as
an alternative to Hastings Sen. Richard Marvel's LB659.
Marvel's proposed legislation called for establishment
of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences as a state admini
strative agency. Its main function would be to finance the
publishing of scientific papers by Nebraska scholars. Cur
rently the academy is an independent agency.
Otto told the Government Military and Veterans Af
fairs Committee that Marvel's bill was unnecessary if
funds could be added to the state education budget.
"The goal of the Academy simply is to have some way
to get their material published," Otto said. "Another state
agency is not needed."
Otto suggested sending a letter to the Commission of
Education asking that the money be set aside for the
academy.
Marvel told the committee his bill was "a vehicle to
discuss funding for the academy." He admitted section six
of the bill was too broad, saying he "hid a reputation for
making bills too far-reaching.
Section six stated that the proposed agency would be
the official state agency to receive and disburse federal
funds made available for state science-related programs.
Roger Macklem, science consultant for the State Board
of Education and chairman of the Junior Academy of
Sciences, said the , budget addition was a "much better
alternative" than creating a state agency.
Otto was questioned by Ralston Sen. Gerald Koch
about the possibility of giving the money to UNL.
The education dept.'s budget should receive the money
rather than UNL, Otto said, because "the NU Board of
Regents are not in favor of mat type of addition to their
budget." v
C.B. Sch'iltz, academy executive secretary, rid the
academy, founded at UNL in 1891, includes both high
school and college lew! scientists and teachers, with state
wida members. They meet every year to discuss new
findings and present scientific papers, he said.
"The object of the academy is to promote scientific
investigation and stimulate research," Schultt told the
committee. "This is the only place scientists have to com
municate with each other."
the NU Board of Regents at its last meeting.
Lump sum requested
NU Pres. D.B. Varner also asked the committee for a
university appropriation in one lump sum to the systems
office, to be distributed by the Regents.
In past years, the same request has been made unsuc
cessfully, with the senators eventaully appropriating
specific amounts to programs within each campus and the
systems office.
Varner said advantages to single sum appropriations
would be in long-term planning, coordination among
campuses and administrative flexibility, and would require
that the regents and administration assume what he called
a proper responsibility for resource allocation.
UNL Interim Chancellor Adam Breckenridge said he
preferred appropriations by campus. Varner said that
would be some progress, but not as desirable as a single
sum appropriation.
An informal poll of committee members last week
showed lump sum budgeting to have slim chances of
passage.
Varner also said that NU needed a 12.3 per cent in
crease in faculty salaries to reach parity with the four
neighboring state universities.
He said all faculty salary increases should be based on
merit alone, a concept Committee Chairman Richard
Marvel of Hastings has endorsed.
Committee's theme
The theme of the committee's attitude toward the
university was for administrators to more clearly define
the NU's mission and goals and for NU to provide a plan
of accountability to the Legislature before single sum
budgeting or any variable would be considered.
Marvel said the first order of business will be the
question of accountability, "the method or tools the uni
versity can use to show the legislative body how the uni
versity fulfilled its mission."
He said that the NU administration cannot say its
mission is to "educate kids," but must define teaching,
research and ex tension roles. They also must show how
the university's agricultural role fits in, according to
Marvel, explaining that some consider the Institute of
Agriculture and Natural Resources and agricultural experi
ment stations practically a separate campus division.
Salary parity
Other university issues Marvel noted will be tax
support and salary parity between UNL and UNO, salary
parity with other comparable institutions and increased
enrollment.
The Legislature also mandated several reports in last
year's appropriations bill concerning instructional pro
gram review, program budgeting, postsecondary education
coordination, enrollment, faculty development and others.
Marvel said the key to the entire operation is and
always will be information. He said there must be more
administration, faculty and student exposure to "those of
us who have the job of throwing the money hoping it will
hit the right spot.
V
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n
X
CJ5. Schultz, executive secretary of the Nebraska
Academy of Sckncca, smSes during . cm cf the
I'ltcr raementa at fee letfiatke feeaiiass oa the
State Dept. of Education budget . . . .
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