Killeen lobbying Springfield to take guesswork out of UI budget - Julie Wurth, News-Gazette

With state funding an annual guessing game, the University of Illinois is pitching a new idea to state lawmakers: provide a stable, multi-year funding plan in exchange for keeping tuition manageable and other state priorities. UI President Timothy Killeen floated the idea of a three- to five-year "compact" with the state in his talks with Gov. Bruce Rauner and other legislative leaders earlier this year. He's stepped up the lobbying as the budget stalemate dragged on, and he believes it's gaining traction — not for this year's budget, but perhaps for fiscal 2017. "What we hope to do is to develop a relationship with the state where we're basically delivering services and educational systems and tuition approaches that are supported by the state, in exchange in a way for some stability and predictability of funding at appropriate levels," Killeen said. http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2015-07-28/killeen-lobbying-springfield-take-guesswork-out-ui-budget.html