![\"NMSU](\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/NMSU-sign-336x225.jpg\")
Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>
The New Mexico State University sign at the corner of Union Avenue and Sam Steele Way in Las Cruces.<\/p><\/div>\n
“We won\u2019t ask the NMSU Board of Regents to consider raising tuition in the middle of the academic year,” university spokesman Justin Bannister said. “We feel pretty confident that we’ll be able to make it through this fiscal year.”<\/p>\n
That’s in part because NMSU padded its earlier cuts with an extra $1.5 million<\/a> in anticipation of another possible reduction in state funding.<\/p>\n The state\u00a0already cut higher-education funding by 2 percent earlier this year<\/a>. The University of New Mexico\u00a0and many other public colleges raised tuition<\/a> to help cover their shortfalls. NMSU\u2019s Board of Regents rejected a tuition increase, with\u00a0Student Regent Amanda L\u00f3pez Askin calling that action<\/a>\u00a0\u201ca very deliberate breaking of a cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n Because of the state funding reduction, declining enrollment, and other issues, NMSU instead made cuts\u00a0that included eliminating jobs<\/a>, reducing<\/a> employee benefits<\/a>, and pay cuts for some top administrators<\/a>\u00a0to trim\u00a0$12.1 million from its budget.<\/p>\n UNM, meanwhile, is looking at making cuts now to prepare for another reduction in state funding. Its president announced<\/a> a hiring freeze on Thursday and directed administrators to prepare for a 5 percent funding reduction.<\/p>\n The newest revenue projections leave the state short almost $600 million<\/a> to pay outstanding bills from the last fiscal year and fund\u00a0its\u00a0budget for the current year that began July 1.\u00a0Lawmakers and Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration are discussing holding a special session to take\u00a0money from\u00a0the $219 million Tobacco Permanent Fund to address the shortfall. But that’s\u00a0not nearly enough. And Martinez says tax increases are off the table.<\/p>\n So additional cuts are likely. Because universities can raise tuition to help cover shortfalls, many expect policymakers to force higher education to shoulder some of the burden.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Beyond the current fiscal year, the state’s long-term outlook is also bleak. Bannister said NMSU’s\u00a0administration plans to ask the Regents to raise tuition before the start of the next academic year that begins in August 2017.<\/p>\n There’s some indication that the NMSU Regents’ recent resistance to tuition hikes could change over time.<\/p>\n “I voted no on tuition increase this year. I vote no on tuition increase last year, and the reason I did was because I didn’t feel like we were all in the game,” Regent Mike Cheney said at the Board’s July 13 meeting<\/a>.\u00a0“Now I’m starting to see some of the conversations emerge to where I’m starting to feel like, you know what, students are willing to give in terms of an increase in tuition, I’ll bet you.”<\/p>\n A 1 percent tuition increase at NMSU would bring in roughly $1 million, so\u00a0if NMSU had raised tuition 5 percent this year it still would have had to cut about $7 million from its budget.<\/p>\n “These are tough decisions,” Cheney said. “It needs to be a multifaceted approach to the answer.”<\/p>\n