Few moments in NIU’s history had as negative and long-lasting effects as the 736-day state budget stalemate of July 1, 2015 to August 31, 2017.
The longest budget impasse in state history began with the election of Republican reformer Bruce Rauner as Illinois’ 42nd governor. Sworn in on Jan. 12, 2015, Rauner had beaten incumbent Pat Quinn by running on what he called the Turnaround Agenda, focused on cutting taxes and targeting unemployment insurance, tort reform and unions.
Rauner’s first budget included a reduction for NIU from $93 million to $64 million in FY16. The university responded with a $15 million cutback from its spring 2016 budget, and another $15 million by the end of the semester.
Students who depended on MAP grants were particularly concerned, as the budget- slashing threatened their ability to continue their studies. Some 5,700 NIU students were receiving MAP funding at the time; NIU credited them the money for two semesters out of confidence that the state would eventually pay the money back.
In the end, MAP saw a decrease in funding from $364 million to $169 million during the impasse, a reduction of 53 percent.
On June 30, 2016 the state passed a stopgap budget to help agencies pay backlogged bills, but accumulating interest charges on those late payments erased much of the progress they were intended to create.
In early 2017, Rauner presented his version of a new budget he called the Grand Bargain, but it went nowhere in the Democratic-controlled legislature. By late June he called lawmakers back into session and said they’d stay in session until a budget was passed. Legislators gave him a budget in July, but Rauner vetoed it.
Throughout the impasse, Illinois’ credit rating was downgraded several times. The S&P threatened to downgrade the state’s rating to junk status if an FY18 budget wasn’t passed by the end of the fiscal year.
Further damage came in the form of declining enrollment at universities and community colleges around the state – a total loss of more than 72,000 students who either went out of state or forestalled their education all together. Nearly 7,500 jobs were lost in Illinois public higher education, and the state’s overall economic output declined by nearly a billion dollars.
Finally on July 6, 2017, lawmakers overrode Rauner’s veto and passed a budget, bringing to an end the longest state budget impasse in the nation’s modern history. Illinois had fallen $15 billion behind on its bills, costing the state about $2 billion in additional interest payments, and enrollment at most public universities dropped as new freshmen wrestled with where to commit for their college educations.
“I don’t think there’s any question that there’s a connection” (between the impasse and declining enrollment), said Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). “The state funding situation in Illinois was in the papers every day for months and months. It goes to public confidence in the institutions.”
Two years with no budget also delayed capital projects around the state, making them more expensive as inflation increased material prices. In the end, NIU lost $65 million over the course of the impasse. At the same time, prudent management and hard-nosed cost-cutting allowed the university to avoid layoffs and furloughs, hold the line on tuition and successfully stop the slide of new freshman enrollment.
Bruce Rauner was defeated in his 2018 bid for a second term.
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