Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed budget for FY 2016 would cut Eastern’s general funds by 31.5 percent, which is a decrease of $13.85 million.

The state appropriated $43.96 million for Eastern’s general funds in FY 2015, and Rauner proposed $30.12 million for FY 2016.

Universities across the state are facing the same potential cuts, including the University of Illinois that would lose $209 million, Western Illinois University that would lose $16.6 million, and Illinois State University that would lose $23.3 million.

Eastern and other universities would also see reductions to other state funds, which include scholarship grant awards, by 61.9 percent.

At Eastern, this would be a decrease of $13,000.

The state appropriated $21,000 in other state funds to Eastern in FY 2015, while Rauner proposed $8,000 for FY 2016.

The proposed budget was released Wednesday when Rauner gave his budget address to the General Assembly.

President Bill Perry said the proposed decrease is quite large and would have a significant impact on operations at Eastern.

“We will be pressing our case for strong support for EIU and higher education,” Perry said. “We have been preparing for a tight budget with our hiring freeze and conservative spending.”

Perry said Eastern will continue to provide opportunities for students “through thick and thin.”

“We know that such a decrease would put pressure on tuition, but affordability concerns limit tuition rates,” he said.

Richard Wandling, the chair of the political science department, said the budget’s impact for Eastern is going to be devastating.

“The governor’s office is presenting it as a smaller reduction because public universities are able to bring in additional revenue such as student tuition and fees and maybe federal grants along the way,” Wandling said.

Wandling said he predicts a major panic will take place across the university in the next coming days.

“We’re already involved in a process of reducing the academic affairs budget by a substantial amount going into next fiscal year based on a directive from the president, and now we have this additional layer of cuts,” he said.

Wandling said for about the past 14 years, Eastern has seen reductions, flat budgets or relatively small increases.

“This does not compare in any way to any budget reduction I’ve seen in my time here,” he said. “And I’ve been here since 1987.”

Wandling said the General Assembly still needs to approve Rauner’s budget, which he foresees being a difficult process.

“It would not surprise me to see the legislature talking about this well into the end of May and likely into June for that matter,” he said.

Wandling said he is interested to see how the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate will respond to the proposed budget. He said he believes Rauner may have success with his plans to change pension-funding laws, as the General Assembly has been willing to change them twice in the past.

Rauner proposed to put all future work under the Tier 2 pension plan, except for police and firefighters.

“There certainly will be some compromises that are going to be struck as they move through the process, but definitely the governor has proposed quite a shocking budget,” Wandling said.

Ali Moshtagh, the chair of the economics department, said any reduction in Eastern’s budget would be hard on the university.

“We have a lot of deferred payments; we have a lot of buildings that are in need of repair, and we have been saving a lot of money to build a new science building, and the current administration has used that reserve to run the university,” Moshtagh said.

Moshtagh said although the budget cuts would be detrimental, the university should not use a business model as a solution.

“The services we provide and the quality of education that we provide the students is not like a merchandise that we can measure its value in dollars and cents,” he said. “Universities need more money, and if they are not provided with the adequate funds, students suffer.”

Mihn Dao, an economics professor, said education is an investment in human capital, and it is one of the three measurements of the wealth of a state or country along with production per person and life expectancy.

“The day that we put less emphasis on education, as witnessed by the reduction in the funding, I think we are basically spelling out the decline of the U.S. civilization,” Dao said. “It’s like the race to the bottom.”

The only education funding Rauner mentioned in his address was for early childhood and K-12 education.

Rauner said he would increase high-quality early childhood education options for the “most vulnerable” children, and he would increase K-12 funding by $300 million to help the districts most in need of support.

Sham’Ah Md-Yunus, an elementary education professor, said the increased funding could benefit students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and it would be helpful to rural schools that sometimes lack technology and basic supplies.

“I would say I agree based on research that if we invest in early education and care for young children, we probably tackle one of the biggest social issues in the community, like increase student retention rate in high school and college,” she said.

For the state of Illinois, Rauner said solving this year’s financial crisis would eliminate $1.6 billion from next year’s deficit, but it would still leave a budget hole of $6.2 billion.

Perry said he encourages patience as the budget process moves forward, as the governor’s budget address was only the first step in a lengthy process.

“In the long term, state support for higher education must be strong and stable,” Perry said. “It is the best investment a state can make for societal advancement the economy.”

Stephanie Markham can be reached at 581-2812 or samarkham@eiu.edu.