Stimulus funds curb additional budget cuts at CMU
Central Michigan University received $1,379,973 of the $787 billion in stimulus money through Oct. 30 from the federal government.
The funds are part of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was signed into law Feb. 17 by President Barack Obama.
The university is eligible to apply for $2,342,100 through a state appropriations bill that allows state universities to apply for a one-time grant to fill any budget shortfalls. Any money the university receives through the appropriations bill will be deducted from the appropriations the university receives from the state every year, said Barrie Wilkes, associate vice president of financial services and reporting.
Even with the stimulus money coming in, the university is still unsure if the “extra” money is being received.
“The question that I think is difficult to answer, looking at these (research) grants, ‘How many of these grants would have been awarded anyway?’” Wilkes said. “Is all of the stimulus money additional money on top of what already would have been spent? Essentially, it’s a net zero.”
Even though no additional funds to the university’s budget appear to be coming in, the stimulus money is saving the university from making additional budget cuts, he said.
According to recovery.gov, the ARRA funds retained or created 16 jobs at CMU with a grant of $172,531 in the Federal Work Study program.
The university is unsure if the funds alone have created new jobs.
“We get Federal Work Study every year,” Wilkes said. “So how do we determine that there are new jobs created versus what would have been created anyway?”
The number of actual positions created or retained is difficult to account for, said David Burdette, vice president of finance and administrative services. Those jobs are calculated by the full-time equivalent formula.
Full-time equivalent is measured by how many employees are defined as full-time by their employers. A full-time employee has their FTE number counted as “1.” If an employee works less than full-time, their FTE number is counted as a fraction.
The Work Study program counts a student employee’s FTE number based on their pay rate, which is a fraction, said Carol Haas, director of financial planning and budgets.
“It might not necessarily be new positions,” she said. “There are positions that are maybe saved because, otherwise, we wouldn’t have had that money and those dollars were allocated to specific students for them to continue to work.”
Thus far, the university has received $180,428 of the funds.
Federal law prohibits the university from receiving the funds before they spend it, Wilkes said.
