In July, the Illinois General Assembly passed its fiscal year 2005 budget, ending one of the longest legislative sessions in recent memory. Illinois State and other public universities were forced to pay their bills with reallocated internally-held funds until the budget was finally appropriated. The wait actually brought some positive news to Illinois State. While most state agencies saw a four percent budget reduction, the public university system received level funding from fiscal year 2004. Still, state support for public higher education is currently at the same level as in 1996.
President Bowman’s comments on the budget are available on the Media Relations Web site.
