l
Candidates
debate cuts,
student fees
By Michelle Leary
Sanfar Reporter__
A SUN candidates addressed
several issues dealing with
UNL’s budget Monday after
noon at the final debate before
j||j[jyr: ^Wednesday’s elec
uuiia.
The budget de
bate focused on the
university’s hear
ing today in front of
Legislature’s Ap
‘propriations Com
miuce. 1 nc nearing win address me
proposed 5 percent cut for the Univer
sity of Nebraska.
Trent Steele, VOICE’S first vice
presidential candidate, said if budget
cuts were made at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, it would be “di
sastrous .”
“If (budget cuts) do go through, we
want to make sure students have a
voice in where the cuts will be made,”
Steele said.
PARTY’S First Vice-Presidential
candidate Leslie Strong agreed.
“We would like to prevent cuts,’’
she said. “But if they do go into effect,
we need to cut vertically.”
Vertical cuts would allow for only
a few programs to be cancelled, in
stead of “watering down” several pro
grams, Strong said.
Both parties said they would at
tend the march, which begins at
Broyhill Fountain at noon, and the
rally at the Capitol at 12:30 p.m.
today.
Steele said the cuts needed to be
fought before they happened.
Both parties also discussed student
fee increases.
, “We’re striving to hold student
Stad McKee/DN
Matt Maser, left, Leslie Strong and Steve Dietz look over a ASUN complaint form that targeted sarcastic posters promoting
the VOICE party Monday durma the ASUN debate in the Nebraska Union. I...
programming, said jiii Anderson,
VOICE’S second vice-presidential
candidate.
However, PARTY’S Second Vice
Presidential candidate Malt Maser said
a zero percent increase in student fees
would be “unrealistic.”
“The PARTY platform deals with
realism,” Maser said. “We’d try to
keep student fees consistent with the
rate of inflation.” -
PARTY’S Presidential candidate
Steve Dietz responded to questions
about leadership by saying: “The No.
1 skill you need as a student regent is
knowing how to get the job done.
”1 don’t see Keith Benes as having
the experience to get the job done.”
Dietz has been a member of the
Association of Students of the Uni
versity of Nebraska for four years,
while Benes, VOICE’S presidential
candidate, has only served on the
UNL Homecoming subcommittee,
Dietz said.
Anderson said although Benes had
no experience in ASUN, he had other
leadership skills, which include in
volvement in the University Ambas
sadors and the UNL Multi-Cultural
Affairs office.
Steele said Benes was unable to
attend the debate because of contin
ued health problems.
Karen Friedman, a Teachers Col
lege Advisory Board candidate with
the VOICE party and a mem ber of the
debate audience, asked Dietz about
the lack of diversity within PARTY.
“Our campaign was so late in start
ing that we didn’t have lime to go out
See DEBATE on 3
Students urged to attend budget cut hearing
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
A SUN President Andrew Sigerson is hop
ing UNL students can spare some time
today to help spare their university.
With the long-awaited Appropriations Com
mittee hearing on proposed budget cuts tar
—geted at the University of
^SV Nebraska beginning at 1:30
1 p.m. today, Sigerson said he
^#^3 hoped students would make
the trip to the Capi tol to voice
their concerns about the fu
MjjBlurc of higher education in
Nebraska.
“I’m hoping we can get at
least 300 students there,” he
said. “There’s really no rea
son students shouldn’t come to this, if their
schedule allows it. The weather will be nice,
and the Capitol's not that far away.
“If they don’t come, it’s because they’re
apathetic/’
■} In January, the Appropriations Committee
— which writes the stale’s budget — targeted
almost $14 million in cuts for tnc NU system.
Sigerson said he would try to illustrate to the
Appropriations Committee—the Legislature's
budget-writing body — the cost of one year at
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, based on a
15-hour per semester course-load — a cost of
about $5,200, he said.
“That will lake into consideration tuition,
books, living expenses, parking permits, lab
Gees and student fees,’’ Sigerson said. “I’lhalso
point out the fact that in the last lOor 15 years,
tuition has increased more than 100 percent.
“It’s not like we’re not paying our fair
share.”
The hearing, which will be in Room 1520 on
the first floor of the Capitol, will include testi*
mony from administrators, faculty, staff and
students from all four NU campuses.
A march from Broyhill Fountain to the
Capitol is scheduled to begin at noon. At 12:30
p.m., there will be a rally on the steps of the
Capitol, and then students arc urged to gather in
Room 1520 for the hearing.
In addition to Sigerson, UNL’s official
speaker list includes Chancellor Graham
Spanier, Irv Omtvedl, vice chancellor for the
Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources,
and Sally Wise, NU faculty representative.
After the official speaker lists of each of
NU’s four campuses arc exhausted, students
wishing to address the committee will be al
lowed to make five-minute statements.
Sigerson said there would be a sign-up sheet
in the room for students wishing to speak.
Rob Douglas, a lobby ist for the Government
Liaison Committee, said he too hoped for a
-44
There's really no reason
students shouldn't come
to this, If their schedule
allows If.
-Sigerson
ASUN president
-99 ~
large student turnout.
“We’ve been pushing pretty hard for stu
dents to get out mere," Douglas said. “If we
don’t gel a lot of students there, I think the
Legislature will see mat as/Well, me univer
sity students really don’t care.’.
“And the Legislature won’t take us very
seriously in me future.”
Medicaid shortfall behind budget crisis, senator says
Nebraska Medicaid expenses , A
vSars of 1992 throutfi 1994 are projected. All years are fiscal.
X
By Matt Woody
Staff Reporter
A Medicaid shortfall for the
1992-93 fiscal year is largely
responsible for the state’s
budget crisis and the possible cuts
looming over UNL, a Nebraska state
senator said.
Sen. Don
Wesely of Lincoln,
ichairman of the
Health and Human
Services Commit
tee, said the pro
jected $29.1 mil
lion Medicaid
1 shortfall for 1992
93 was keeping him
busy searching for solutions.
Nebraska is notalone in facing this
i “severe problem,” Wesely said —
many states arc having the same dif
ficulties. These states are all looking
for answers, but “frankly, there aren’t
any,” he said.
According to the Medicaid Study
Task Force report, published in De
cember, Medicaid could cause prob
lems for Nebraska for years to come
unless something is done. The task
force predicted a Medicaid shortfall
of $49 million in the 1993-94 fiscal
year and $71 million for 1994-95.
The United States’ healthcare sys
tem is badly in need of reform, Wesely
said. The current system is “eating up
our state and our nation,” he said.
The task force’s report shows a
large increase in Nebraska’s Medic
aid spending over the last eight years:
“Medicaid general fund expenditures
ip 1985 totalled $51 million. The pro
jected general fund expense for 1995
is $239 million, an increase of 369
percent.”
In 1992, the general fund expense
was $140 million.
The report cites eight factors that
have led to the Medicaid spending
increases.
These factors include an increase
in the number of people using Medic
aid, a number that has more than
doubled since 1980, and a rise in the
cost of health care, which “increased
at a much higher rate than the general
inflation rate.”
The Medicaid task force recom
mended that fundamental changes in
the Medicaid system be enacted and
requested “that the Department of
Social Services develop a managed
See BUDGET on 3