Legislative Update - May 13, 2004

Summary of ETF Budget

The ETF Budget, which passed the Alabama Legislature for FY '05, contains over $4.5 billion dollars. This is a slight increase over the FY '04 budget. The following are a few highlights of this budget. The percentage of the overall ETF budget for higher education was 26.59%, down from 27.10% from the FY '04 budget. Although the numbers for higher education increased in this budget, the overall share of the total budget decreased. The FY '05 ETF Budget had an increase of $249,706,991 over the previous year. This is an increase of 5.83%. Higher Education received an increase of $44,942,928 for an increase of 3.87%. Of this increase the Universities received $27,664,351. This was an increase of 3.24%. The two yr. system received $14,030,658 for a 5.53% increase. In FY '04 Troy University had an appropriation of $35,808,013. Troy's appropriation for FY '05 is $37,080,895 for an increase of $1,272,882. This was an increase of 3.55%. K-12 received an increase of $234,529,976 from the previous year. This is an increase of 8.09%. While our university received a slight increase, we still must find ways to fund retirement and retiree health insurance. These unfunded mandates were directed by the Legislature last year.

Once again, K-12 received a greater percentage increase in funding with most being additional funding for education employees' health insurance premiums. Alabama's public schools will receive more funding for textbooks and the Alabama Reading Initiative will be fully funded for K-3.