UVSC is definitely a bright spot in this years legislature. For years, the college seems to have been forgotten when it came to funding student growth. Many in the legislature did not want to fund student growth because they felt UVSC was promoting growth just to receive extra revenue. During the last couple of years UVSC took a different approach and began to illustrate how little the state paid for an education at UVSC. Now the legislators could see that students at UVSC were paying more for their education than the state was contributing. As the gap in funding was explained, it became very clear that the tuitions at UVSC would continue to climb if something wasn’t done. Because there was such a huge increase in state revenue, the timing was perfect to secure this extra funding. To some it may not seem like a lot of money, but it raised the state participation to over 50%.

Along with the equity funding, UVSC also received additional funding for operations and maintenance (O&M) that wasn’t expected. Last year when new facilities came on line, the higher education appropriations committee decided to have each institution handle the funding from their existing budgets. When the committee began debating O&M this year it was obvious that they wanted to set aside additional funds for new buildings. The case was made that if they wanted to do that, they should also fund the buildings from the previous year. This was another huge win for the college.

Starting this year, a fiscal note is tied to any new projects funded by the state. The fiscal note is the O&M. From now on, no buildings will be approved for construction if this is not funded. In the past, it was always a battle to try to get these costs funded after the fact. This shouldn’t be a problem in the future.

It is not often that Don Meyers, Daily Herald editorial editor, and I agree on things. The issue of UVSC’s success is one of those exceptions and it may be the last for quite some time. Come to think of it, I don’t know what else Don will have to complain about now that the session is over. I’m sure he’ll think of something.