CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Higher Education Chancellor Dr. Paul Hill told members of the House of Delegates Finance Committee Friday he had no prior discussions with WVU, Marshall or the governor’s office in connection with cuts to the two universities in Gov. Jim Justice’s proposed budget.
Hall was responding to a question from Del. Jim Butler (R-Mason).
“Is this something that those schools spoke with or that you spoke with the governor or his staff before the cuts were announced as part of that budget? Was this pre-approved, so to speak,” Butler asked.
“I had no discussions about those cuts (WVU-Marshall) nor with WVNET,” Hill said.
Justice’s proposed budget slices 4.4 percent from the two schools. That comes out to $5.9 million at WVU and $2.8 million at Marshall. The Justice budget takes out $1.7 million from WVNET, which oversees a statewide computer network that includes most of the state’s colleges and universities.
If the cuts go through, it could mean more tuition increases at the state’s two largest higher education institutions. Butler said tuition has gone up drastically in recent years but he said it appears that happened even before state budget cuts started a few years ago.
Hill said schools raise tuition for a number of reasons including an increase in operational costs.
“The institutions, in order to keep up with that, they’re allowed to raise five percent tuition each year without any explanation to you, me or anyone else,” Hill told the committee.
The HEPC reviews any tuition increase proposals more than five percent, Hill said.
“If they have a good, solid rationale as to why (they want to raise it) then typically we approve it because we know they have less resources than they had previously,” he said.
Butler said he’s not sure less funding for higher education is the sole reason why tuition has increased significantly.
“We as legislators are led to believe that the reduction of state money means tuition is going to go up. It seems like tuition goes up whether we fund the schools or not,” he said.