UI receives additional stopgap budget, still no permanent state funding - Angelica LaVito, Daily Illini

The new year renewed old budget questions for the University. Funding from the state, allocated in a stopgap budget passed in June, expired Jan. 1. The Illinois General Assembly has begun negotiations on a permanent budget, but until anything is passed, higher education remains unfunded. The University received a $47 million payment from the state last week, University Spokesman Tom Hardy said in an email, completing “virtually all” of the $351 million payments promised in the stopgap budget. However, despite the stopgap budget, the University is still short about half of the $644 million it was promised for fiscal year 2015. In 2016, the University received 28 percent of the funding the state pledged in 2015, according to Jennifer Creasey, director of state relations for the office of government relations. “It’s just crazy,” she said. “It just keeps getting worse, snowballing the more it goes.” http://dailyillini.com/showcase/2017/01/17/ui-receives-additional-stopgap-budget-still-no-permanent-state-funding/