Higher Education Coordinating Commission presents governor's recommended budget; highlights student aid increases and IT modernization ask

The Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) presented the governor's recommended budget and agency priorities to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means for Education on April 1.

Ben Cannon, HECC executive director, and Tom Reel, HECC director of operations, led a budget‑intensive briefing that summarized national comparisons, state investments per student, institutional funding patterns and key elements of the governor's recommended budget (GRB). The GRB total for HECC programs was presented as approximately $4.39 billion, a 6.6 percent increase over the last biennium and a 14 percent increase from the current service level (CSL) baseline. HECC staff said roughly three quarters of the budget is general fund and that over 80 percent of HECC expenditures are special payments going directly to institutions,…