U administrators listed funding for the renovation of the David Eccles School of Business as a top legislative priority at the beginning of the session, but lawmakers didn’t set aside any money for the project in their budget outlined last week.
Instead, $25 million for building projects were allocated to construct a new Utah Museum of Natural History in the foothills above Research Park.
Because the budget isn’t finalized until the last day of the session on Wednesday, U vice president for government relations Kim Wirthlin said she’s still hopeful the business school will get funding.
“Things could still happen,” Wirthlin said. “Things can change. We hold our hope until March 5.”
During the budgeting session on Feb. 27, Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, said legislators spent $613 million and have $111 million left to spend.
While the state has already funded most of the projects it will support, Hillyard echoed Wirthlin’s sentiment, saying, “It ain’t over.”
The Utah State Legislature has until Wednesday to create a “bill of bills” with all funding decisions, Hillyard said.
“You will see a real flurry of activity surrounding small items and fiscal note bills and some costs trying to get funding at last days of session,” said Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley.
Even if the business school doesn’t get funded, the U can still move forward with the renovations, Wirthlin said, but the project will have to be cut down.
The entire project, which would replace the Francis Armstrong Madsen and Ken Garff buildings with more modern facilities and more offices and classrooms, costs $107.5 million. The U is seeking $28.5 million from the Legislature to help fund it.
With about $80 million in private funds already donated, Wirthlin said the U has raised enough money to start construction this year, but they would have to cut the proposed 16 general-purpose classrooms the campus needs.
Jack Brittain, dean of the business school, said it would be inappropriate to speak too soon about the funding because the list isn’t finalized until Wednesday.
The museum still needs more private funds, but construction will start this summer.
“The museum is a very important project as well,” Wirthlin said. “We wanted to be sure to get (funding for) at least one of the two, but we hope for both.”
She said it was important that the museum project was funded this year because the longer they wait, the more expensive inflationary construction costs would become.
For higher education funding, Wirthlin said the U fared well but not as well as it had hoped. All of higher education received funding for engineering, health care, teaching initiatives and scholarship programs.
“Institutional priorities weren’t able to be funded nearly as much as we hoped,” Wirthlin said.
Legislators approved a 3 percent compensation increase for faculty. The U was hoping for an increase of between 3 and 5 percent.
Hillyard said not all projects could be funded because there was less money to dish out than lawmakers originally expected.
Although the state had more than $700 million to allocate this session, they had about $340 million less to spend because of a drooping state and national economy.
Even with reductions, Hillyard said this budget represents the third highest funding the state has ever seen, but they can’t fund everything.
“Our biggest challenge is high expectations,” he said.