Campus prepares for cuts in budget - MARY PICKETT Of The Billings Gazette

Montana State University Billings Chancellor Ron Sexton has seen the state’s University System reconfigure budgets midstream before, but not often. In 1985-1986, Sexton was vice president of the Billings campus — then called Eastern Montana College — when three budget cuts came down from Helena after state revenues fell. Something similar seems to be happening this year. When a projected $282.4 million state surplus shrank to an estimated $16.9 million by the start of this year, Gov. Brian Schweitzer called on state agencies to cut their budgets by 5 percent if necessary.