Although the $96 million cut from higher education in Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s amendatory budget veto will have a large impact on grant programs and community colleges, public universities in Illinois will see on average a 2.8 percent increase in salary enhancements in 2009.

The increase, which was set by the General Assembly, was one of the few line items that Blagojevich spared. For the Illinois Board of Higher Education and university officials, the increase in the 2009 fiscal year state budget comes as a slight relief.

“The governor must have felt it was justified,” said Candice Mueller, assistant director of external relations for the Illinois Board of Higher Education. “Of all the budgeting options that were presented, including this increase in funding must have been important to him.”

The governor cut $1.4 billion from the legislature’s version in amendatory budget vetoes last week, decreasing an estimated $2 billion deficit. The $96 million that was cut from higher education included $18 million for Monetary Award Program funding, $18.6 million for community colleges and $39.5 million for the board’s grant programs such as health education and research matching grants and faculty diversity fellowships.

According to Mueller, while the 2.8 percent is beneficial, the final annual increase was much less than what was asked for.

“We only received level three funding and it was meant to be level five funding,” Mueller said. “We are grateful for any funding because there hasn’t been an increase for a while.”

The governor’s budget veto proposed funding MAP grants at the 2008 level. The motion to review the veto ultimately failed on the House floor on Wednesday.

Because the Illinois Student Assistance Commission did not include the $18 million increase originally appropriated by the General Assembly for MAP grants within their start up formula, students will not technically be losing money for the fiscal year 2009. However, according to Katharine Gricevich, special assistant to the executive director of the commission, the increase could have either qualified or increased the amount of money awarded to more than 2,000 students.

“We were hoping the increase would make it into the final budget,” Gricevich said.

According to University of Illinois spokesman Tom Hardy, this is the third consecutive increase that higher education in the state has been awarded. Statistics from the board of higher education show a decrease in funding in 2006 followed by a slight increase for public universities in 2007 and 2008. Funding for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission and other grants and agencies was decreased in 2008. Adjusted for inflation from 1993 to 2008, higher education in the state has seen a 8.7 percent budget increase.

University Student Trustee Paul Schmitt remains “cautiously optimistic” and feels that several months of student lobbying for higher education paid off. However, Schmitt is still skeptical of the less than 3 percent increase and said the depreciation of buying power these increases actually have must be recognized.

“I am grateful for the increase and feel that we made an extreme amount of headway,” Schmitt said. “For the past few years higher ed has been taking a major hit. Adjusting the budget for inflation, we’ve seen just about a 0 percent increase over the past few years … I know that there’s nothing that would stop the governor from cutting these funds.”

“The failure of the capital bill is a tremendous blow to the U of I,” Schmitt said.

Without a working capital infrastructure bill, the University will not only be unable to renovate and take up maintenance projects, but it also faces halting progress on new projects.

“There is no capital bill right now,” Hardy said.