State universities: Illinois budget stalemate causing damage 'beyond repair'

Children of police officers, firefighters and other first responders who have been killed or disabled are not having their education paid for as Illinois State law mandates.... 

With no money from the state in nearly seven months and its financial reserves almost depleted, Chicago State University said Monday that it will be unable to pay its employees come March unless money begins flowing again from Springfield.

"This is a crisis by every definition of the word crisis," said Thomas Wogan, spokesman for the South Side public university that serves about 4,800 students.

About 30 percent of the university's funding — approximately $36 million a year — comes from the state. By March, the campus will not have enough money to meet its $5 million monthly payroll costs, Wogan said.

"We will have to find solutions to finish our semester without enough cash to operate," he said.

While Chicago State is the first school to lay out that dire scenario, other campuses that are heavily dependent on state funding may not be far behind. Northeastern Illinois University President Sharon Hahs said Monday that while she anticipates completing the spring semester, "there is potential for our university to shut down" without an "adequate appropriation" soon.

Universities have been without state money since July as Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the General Assembly can't agree on a budget. In a letter sent Friday to Rauner and legislative leaders, the presidents of the state's nine public universities said the stalemate will result in public higher education being "damaged beyond repair."

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