ND Legislators Skeptical about Higher Education Budget - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

ND Legislators Skeptical about Higher Education Budget

It's a budget that gets scrutinized every session... And this session, even more lawmakers will be suspicious of the North Dakota University System's requests.

To kick off the budget for Higher Education, the new chancellor, Hamm Shirvani, gave the Senate Appropriations committee an overview of the budget.

Chairman Ray Holmberg says lawmakers spent some time this morning "myth busting".

"We had a special section today focusing on that. Whether or not the Chancellor is going to fire Presidents once the session is over, and whether or not Presidents have been muffled as far as talking to legislators," says Holmberg.

The past two years have been filled with controversy for the ND Board of Higher Ed.

There are also a lot of legislators who have lost trust in the University System after several incidents.

For example, immediately after lawmakers were firm on North Dakota colleges limiting tuition increases - the Board of Higher Ed raised tuition at NDSU.

Senator Holmberg says lawmakers continue to be skeptical even though the agency has a new leader.

Holmberg says, "I think the saying, once bitten, twice shy. We will remain skeptical until we see what actually happens. We try not to get into the management of the system, because the constitution is somewhat clear about what we can and can not do."

The budget includes a new funding formula for the state college and universities.

Schools will be paid based on the number of completed courses.

It also includes $160 million in one time campus projects.

Senate Appropriations is hearing from all the North Dakota college and universities Monday and Tuesday.