President William Perry has nothing to complain about after hearing Eastern is set to receive a 1.9 percent increase in appropriations from the state of Illinois for the 2008 fiscal year.

“We’ve got some numbers now that we can work with planning this year and executing the programs that we need to do and want to do,” Perry said.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich approved the long overdue state budget Thursday, which the General Assembly passed August 10.

Eastern will see an increase of $906,400 from the 2007 fiscal year to the 2008 fiscal year. In 2007, Eastern received about $48.2 million from the state. For 2008, the total is projected to be around $49.2 million.

“We are pleased that the state has increased our appropriations,” Perry said.

The state budget totaled around $59 billion after Blagojevich cut $463 million, which he plans to use to expand health care programs.

Among the cuts, Blagojevich sliced funds to grants, which would go to researching the prevention of autism, HIV, Alzheimer’s disease and potential pandemic flu. He also cut funds for the developmentally disabled and elderly veterans.

House of Representatives speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) said Blagojevich vetoing money to expand health care programs may not have enough constitutional muster, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.

“It appears that his strategy on this is not to take money per say and shift it from one item to another, but to use his executive authority to expand eligibility through the administrative rule making process for people respect to health care, and than to use that money for the expansion of services through eligibility guidelines,” said Richard Wandling, chair of the political science department. “Even that is of questionable value, and I would expect a court challenge into doing that too.”

The 2008 fiscal year began July 1, but Blagojevich and the General Assembly could not agree on a state budget.

A month-long temporary budget was approved for July, but the stalemate between the two parties lasted well into the month of August. This resulted in a non-existent budget for Illinois beginning August 1.

Jeff Cooley, vice president for business affairs, said Eastern used money left over from the July temporary budget to pay the payroll for the first half of August.

Eastern would have started using tuition funds to pay the payroll for the second half of August if Blagojevich did not approve the General Assembly’s state budget, he said.

“With the tuition payments, we think we can meet our obligations, but it won’t be as much fun as it would be if we had the state funding,” Cooley said before Blagojevich approved the budget.

Eastern will not have to resort to using tuition funds to make payroll after Blagojevich approved the state budget Thursday. This maintains the integrity of the university’s budget and prevents cuts in other areas.

Cooley said the 1.9 percent increase in state funding, and tuition fees, goes to Eastern’s instruction purposes.

The House of Representatives and the Senate can override Blagojevich’s vetoes to the state budget, which would result in creating a new state budget.

But Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) said he would block any effort the Senate will try to override Blagojevich’s cuts to the budget, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.

As for the increase in money Eastern is set to receive, Perry could not be any happier.

“The bottom line is the state has given us more money, and we are grateful for that,” Perry said.

To see the governor’s press release, click here.