Louisiana lawmakers ask colleges for cut plans

BATON ROUGE, La.

State lawmakers are pressing Louisiana's higher education leaders for details of the strategies they're using now to cope with budget cuts expected in 16 months.

Louisiana's college campuses aren't proposed to take cuts in the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. But that plan relies on $290 million in federal stimulus money.

Those dollars disappear a year later, in the 2011-12 fiscal year, and members of the Senate Finance Committee said Monday they want to see plans for how campuses will cope with that loss.

Republican Sen. Mike Walsworth says he's heard Commissioner of Higher Education Sally Clausen talk for a year about planning for that "cliff." But Walsworth says he hasn't seen a plan.

Clausen says schools are shrinking costs now, by eliminating programs, cutting staff and changing degree requirements.