Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 19, Number 6, DeMotte, Jasper County, 7 January 1949 — Deficit In Institutions Is Reported [ARTICLE]

Deficit In Institutions Is Reported

Assembly Faces TaskOf Providing Money To Make Up Fund Shortages A deficiency appropriation of between $4,000,000 and $5,000,000 to keep Indiana’s state institutions and governmental departments “out of the red” during the current fisical year will be requested in the 1949 General Assembly. Need for a total of $5,407,977 has been certified by various institutions and departments to the State Budget Committee but it is expected tto pare these requests before submitting them to the legistlature. Meanwhile the state’s treasury surplus has shrunk from $49,000,000 to $25,000,000, Chief Deputy State Auditor William A. Owen revealed. The drop however, is only tertiporarly due to recent payment of $39,000,000 in school tuition support, Owen said v The budget Committee headed by State Budget Director Roscoe P. Freeman, has been touring state institutions for more than a month checking deficiency appropriation requests. The additional funds will be needed to enable state agencies to pay their bills between now and June 30, close of the fisical year. Heaviest budget deficiency is expected at Indiana University where a request for $1,460,458 has been made. I.U. President Herman B. Wells said last night the university will be forced to exceed its fisical budget due primarily to. a heavy loss of ex-GI students whose tutition payments are made by the Federal government. The government makes a standard $330 annual tutition payment for exGls while civilian students pay only S7O, Wells said. ~ In addition a general increase in enrollment and skyrocketing administrative costs have swelled I.U’s financial needs Dr. Wells reported. State Budget Examiner Robert W. King said requests for deficiency appropriations for all institutions totaled $3,833,073 and for all state departments, $666,654. Second heaviest institutional deficiency was at the state prison $311,004. The State Reformatory was third, requesting $251, 412. King said most of the mental penal and benevolent institutions listed salary increases and rising costs of fuel and food as the cause of their excessive expenditures. The budget-makers wereundecided whether to request the deficiency appropriation in a special bill or combine it with the regular appropriation bill.”