Employees of Western Illinois University will receive paychecks next month whether the state has approved a new budget or not.
The board of trustees held its quarterly meeting on the Quad Cities campus in Moline on Friday.
The fiscal year begins July 1, and budget director Matt Bierman says WIU has enough money to get by for several months.
“We’ll be okay for most of the fall semester, because of tuition dollars,” Bierman said. “We’ll be fine through November. We’ll see how it goes after that.”
Western's trustees approved a preliminary spending plan for next year, based on a cut in state funding of 6.5 percent. As a result, Bierman says the university will have to spend five to seven million dollars from reserve funds.
“So at some point, if we use up too much, we start getting back into a situation where cash flow becomes a bigger concern as it was four or five years ago,” Bierman said. “So this is a tricky balance that we have to work. That’s why I keep saying FY17 is a critical year for what happens with the state and the decisions we have to make.”
Currently, the university has about 22 million dollars in reserves. A final spending plan will be presented to trustees in October.
Northern Illinois University president Doug Baker says NIU will remain open in July, regardless if a new budget is approved.
- WVIK News contributed to this report.
