Budget & Planning Committee (BPC) Report

given to the University Senate on September 25, 2006

Submitted by Richard Mercier, Chair

Karynne Kleine requested that the committee discuss the recent cut in the employer contribution to the ORP by 1.5% during a contract year. We will be addressing this issue at a future meeting. 

Gerald Fisher mentioned that the State withholds retirement plan payments from the December and May paychecks until the following month thereby benefiting from any interest generated by this money.

Harry Keim made a presentation on the university budget process to educate the Committee members and answered questions as he went along.  We were given printouts of the Power Point presentation.  If anyone would care to see it please contact me.

One of the major discussions dealt with the Residence Hall situation and the impact new construction might have on that policy.

We also discussed the new budget process.  At present, all we know is that we will have about one month to prepare our new budget for 2007-08 academic year using the "zero-based" budget process.  President Leland anticipates receiving additional details about the University System budget process from the Chancellor on Sep 28th.

Some members of the committee remember zero-based budget from the Carter administration, and stated that it led to centralized planning and excessive paper work to justify expenses.

The committee hopes that GCSU will be able to learn from other universities that have adopted this budgetary process.

We noted that the committee may need to meet more often in October as the budget process proceeds.

 Next regularly scheduled Meeting: Friday, 6 October 2006, 12:30-1:45, Library Conference Room.