Regents propose 4,000 layoffs, dozens of program cuts By Walter C. Jones
Morris News Service
ATLANTA -- The University System of Georgia released a list Monday afternoon of 4,000 layoffs and dozens of program eliminations that would be required should the General Assembly insist on taking another $300 million from the budget.
Lawmakers are searching for roughly $1 billion in savings to avoid a projected shortfall in next year's budget. Last week, they ordered the system to compile a list by Friday of the cuts it would make.
University System spokesman John Millsaps said the Friday deadline wasn't possible. The presidents of the 35 public colleges and universities forwarded their list of changes to the University System on Saturday for release to the public 4 p.m. Monday. Arlington Christian School
The changes include closing satellite campuses, elimination of certain majors, shorter hours at libraries and student centers and lower caps on enrollment among the various schools. The University of Georgia, for instance, would admit 500 fewer freshmen in the fall and accept 1,000 fewer transfer students.
Among the degree programs cut at certain schools would be nursing and dental hygiene, which are more expensive to teach but are also necessary to filling employment shortages.
Gov. Sonny Perdue didn't call for such deep cuts in the University System, just $265 million. The governor opted instead to raise revenue by selling off some water-system loans to investors and levying a 1.6 percent tax on health providers and health insurance plans.
"We're trying to avoid some of the really dramatic cuts that have been talked about over the last week or so," said Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley. "We tried to do this in a very reasonable, measured approach."
The state's payrolls has dropped by 4,500 employees in the last 18 months, mostly through attrition. That represents roughly 5 percent of state workers outside of the University System.
Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers said Monday the Board of Regents isn't a political victim.
"They have not been targeted worse than other agencies," he said. "In fact, they have probably been treated better."
University System Chancellor Erroll Davis wrote in his cover letter to the legislative budget-writing chairmen in the House and Senate that he hoped the cuts could be avoided.
"Such a reduction would dramatically and negatively alter the University System in which the people of this state have invested so much, a reduction of this size is not in the best interest of Georgia and its future economic development," he wrote.
By Walter C. Jones
Morris News Service
