For individual campuses please see links below

TO: Board of Regents

FROM: Richard A. Crofts, Commissioner

SUBJECT: FY 2001 Operating Budgets

DATE: November 2, 1999

Re: Fiscal Year 2001 Preliminary Budget – Development Plan and Priorities

At the Board of Regents Budget Workshop this past September, some of you expressed a certain amount of frustration concerning the fact that you had seen the operating budgets only at the end of a very long process and had little opportunity to influence what those budgets contained. I asked the campuses to provide the following information so that the Board would have earlier information about, and more input into, the FY2001 operating budgets:

1. A statement describing the budget process and calendar for FY2001, including a description of the groups or committees involved in the establishment of revenue estimates and priorities;

2. A statement of the campuses’ expectations of "new money" available for the FY2001 budget;

3. A summary of what has been requested on-campus for additional funding in the FY 2001 budget.

These documents give us a very clear picture of the budget process on each of our campuses. What is probably the most remarkable is that there is little or no budget increase expected to be available for additional campus projects in Fiscal Year 2001. It is startling, after coming out of the legislative session with an almost 8% increase in general fund for the educational units, to have so little "new money" available for Fiscal Year 2001. In fact, it appears as though many of our campuses will be required to make personnel reductions in order to balance their FY 2001 budgets.

I hope these documents provide you with a better understanding of the flow of budget development on each of our campuses. Perhaps more importantly, though, the documents should provide you with the opportunity to ask questions about and to influence the campuses priorities in allocating budget surpluses and reductions. If you have questions concerning these documents, please call Rod Sundsted or Laurie Neils.

Montana State University-Bozeman

Montana State University-Billings

Montana State University-Northern

MSU-Great Falls College of Technology

The University of Montana-Missoula

Montana Tech of UM

Western Montana College of UM

Helena College of Technology of UM