Friday, February 13, 2015

USM Chancellor Brit Kirwan lobbies for more state funding at hearing - Jon Banister, Diamondback

University System of Maryland Chancellor Brit Kirwan lobbied for more state funding at a House of Delegates subcommittee hearing Thursday in the face of a systemwide $47 million shortfall for fiscal year 2016. When Gov. Larry Hogan introduced his fiscal year 2016 budget on his second day in office, he touted a $15.4 million increase in university system funding. But this is a 1.3 percent increase from the final fiscal year 2015 budget — which included January’s $40 million cut to the system — not the budget the legislature passed last spring, Kirwan emphasized to the Education and Economic Development Subcommittee. "This is far from the budget any of us would like to see,” Kirwan told the subcommittee. “It has no enhancement funds, and it’s a budget that will make it very difficult for us to sustain the progress and momentum I just cited in my commentary. http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/article_44a09c02-ad89-11e4-8886-4f87dd993837.html