Budget plan funds nursing buildings,but skimps on faculty

BOISE – Although Gov. Butch Otter wants to spend millions on building new nursing education buildings, his budget includes no funding for $13.6 million in additional faculty, training and pay recommended by a state Nursing Task Force.

“You can’t have one without the other, can you?” asked a surprised Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo, who served on the nursing task force.

Otter recommended $37 million to build new nursing education buildings at Lewis-Clark State College and at the College of Southern Idaho. He also included $635,000 in one-time spending in his budget to buy new clinical simulators for all six Idaho institutions that offer nursing education, and to lease some additional space.

“The governor did not address in his recommendation increasing the number of nursing faculty,” said Jane McClaran, Otter’s budget analyst for higher education. “It simply did not fit into his ongoing general fund budget.”

But Senate Education Committee Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, said the committee will take up the need for ongoing funds to expand the programs. “I’m personally very aware of the concern for attracting teachers of nurses,” Goedde said.

The news about what is – and isn’t – in Otter’s recommended budget is filtering out this week as lawmakers review his budget proposals for education, including the state’s colleges and universities, community colleges and professional-technical education.

Otter included the one-time spending for the nursing simulators and leased space in his college and university budget, and in his proposal for professional-technical education. But these proposals from the nursing task force went unfunded:

“$3.8 million to raise nursing faculty salaries to industry standards over the next three years.

“$7.6 million to increase nursing seats for students by 400 over the next two years.

“$1.3 million to develop nursing faculty to replace retiring faculty over the next four years.

Darrington said he strongly supports the two buildings, for which Otter has proposed paying cash. Former Gov. Jim Risch, who convened the nursing task force, had recommended paying for half the cost of the buildings, and borrowing the rest through bonds.

“I 100 percent support this,” Darrington said of the buildings. “On the ongoing operating money – it seems to me like if we’re going to develop more nursing education, we’re going to have to hire faculty on an ongoing basis – not a one-time basis.”

But Darrington said he hasn’t yet seen the budget details.

Otter has proposed a 13.1 percent increase in state general funds for the state’s four-year colleges and universities next year – a figure that’s won him praise from college officials. But nearly half of that – $15 million – is for Otter’s one-time infusion of cash into the Higher Education Research Council for research grants at Idaho colleges “specifically aimed at economic development.”

The universities asked for ongoing funding for several priorities, including raising salaries for faculty in competitive fields; starting new programs, including a University of Idaho secondary teacher education program in North Idaho; and funding technological and building upgrades. The University of Idaho wanted to raise annual stipends for its 300 graduate teaching assistants from the current $11,100 to $16,500, the median for comparable institutions. None of those requests was funded in the governor’s budget.

Instead, Otter set aside enough money to give university employees 5 percent in raises – and said university administrators can decide how to use the money.

“The institutions have the additional flexibility to allocate those funds where they believe their priorities would be,” including to nursing faculty, McClaran said.

University of Idaho President Tim White told legislative budget writers Tuesday he’s struggling to keep professors, especially with Washington State University just eight miles across the border in Pullman, where faculty are paid up to 20 percent more.

“We’re trying to aspire to average” when it comes to pay, White told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee.

Legislative budget writers will hear budget pitches today from North Idaho College President Michael Burke and College of Southern Idaho President Jerry Beck.

White offered reassurances to lawmakers that the UI is once again on solid financial ground after a failed expansion attempt in Boise exacerbated budget woes and forced cutbacks. Now, he’s turning to address some $207 million in deferred maintenance on the school’s facilities, including 253 buildings, 46.5 acres of roofs, 3.4 miles of utility tunnels and 20 miles of sidewalks.

“All that stuff costs money,” White said. “This $207 million in deferred maintenance is really big for us.”