Eastern is tentatively scheduled for a 2.8 percent budget increase in state appropriations for fiscal year 2009, said Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet. But he’s uncertain that the additional funds will make it to Eastern.

The Illinois House of Representatives finished day two of budget discussions on Wednesday, and Rose said he voted “no” on everything because the proposed budget has a $4.7 billion deficit.

Voting “no” across the board was an attempt to make a statement by multiple lawmakers toward Governor Rod Blagojevich, Rose said.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Rose said. “I’m happy for higher education because this is more than it has gotten in a while, but where does Blagojevich go every time he has to cut money? Higher education.”

During Tuesday’s initial budget proposal to the House, Rose said Eastern was set to get a 2.8 percent increase and to receive a $285,000 grant for a nursing project – but Wednesday’s proposal did not include the grant.

He also referred to an April decision in which Blagojevich was going to recall eight percent of all universities’ state-allocated funds for the current fiscal year. However, Rose said most state schools already spent the money earlier in the fiscal year, and Blagojevich instead decided not to disperse one-third of the final quarterly state funding to community colleges.

Eastern would have had to return just over $4 million.

Much can happen in the next few weeks in an attempt to get the budget approved by the May 31 deadline, Rose said. He said he’s afraid of losing funding for organizations and institutions within his district, such as Eastern.

“I think there’s some chance of us getting out of here on time, but with a $4.7 billion hole, it would need to be fixed later,” Rose said. “And when I say later, I mean after the elections, when Democrats are back in office.”

Blagojevich introduced more than $3 billion into the proposed budget, and several of those projects have been rejected in past budgets. But about $1 billion that was overspent in fiscal year 2008 will rollover into the next budget, Rose said.

“This (budget) is catastrophic and needs to be trimmed because instead of asking for one-twelfth, he’ll ask for (one-half) of universities’ money back next time around,” Rose said.

In February, Blagojevich suggested a zero percent increase to higher education in the fiscal year 2009 budget. Jeff Cooley, Eastern’s vice president for Business Affairs, announced later in the month that tuition revenue increased above state allocations for the first time ever.

Eastern’s Board of Trustees then approved a 12 percent increase in tuition on April 21 for incoming freshman and transfer students.

Rick Kambic can be reached at 581-7942 or at rwkambic@eiu.edu.