President’s budget update

The following message was sent from President Mark B. Rosenberg to the university community on February 11, 2011:

Dear members of the university community:

You may have seen media reports about Gov. Rick Scott’s budget proposal, which was unveiled on Monday.

While it is still very early in the state budget cycle, we have our best analysts working together with colleagues in Tallahassee to understand implications to the university system as well as FIU in particular. The governor’s proposed budget contains no direct cuts to universities’ recurring base budgets. However there are two related issues that we are following closely:

• Gov. Scott’s budget does not recommend a funding source to replace federal stimulus dollars that will disappear in the 2011-2012 budget.
• The budget includes a proposal that could affect many of our employees who are members of the Florida Retirement System (FRS) or one of the optional retirement plans.
• An additional proposal eliminates the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) effective July 1, 2011.  This will affect prospective retirees.

As in years past, we will update you regularly between now and the end of the legislative session in early May. If at any time you want to learn more about developments in Tallahassee, I invite you to visit our Governmental Relations page or follow Governmental Relations on facebook.

Thank you for your interest in this important process and everything you do for our FIU.

Mark B. Rosenberg
President