University of Kentucky board approves a $374 million mid-year budget increase
The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees approved a nearly $374 million mid-year increase to the university’s budget on Friday.
The vast majority of the money comes to the university from the federal government to be used specifically for Medicaid patients in the university’s hospital system and in the College of Medicine. The federal dollars will increase the UK Chandler Hospital’s operating budget, which was originally approved in June, from $1.1 billion to $1.46 billion.
The Medicaid dollars distributed to UK are part of a statewide plan proposed last year and finally approved by the federal government in August to move money to the state’s teaching hospitals — UK HealthCare and the University of Louisville, spokersperson Jay Blanton said, to “ensure that access to such critical sub-specialty services as pediatric specialty, trauma and solid organ transplant is available” to those in the state on Medicaid.
UK and the University of Louisville will continue to see these payments through 2023.
As the budget increase was directed at the state’s Medicaid population, it would be of no help at patching a potential $33 million hole in the university’s budget, created by a possible mid-year state budget cut and lower-than-expected tuition earnings this fall — both brought on by complications related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In September, tuition data suggested that the university will make $11.6 million less in tuition revenue than budgeted, despite having record enrollment this year, Eric Monday, the executive vice president for finance and administration told the board at a meeting last month. On top of that, the state’s budget director told all state agencies to prepare for an 8 percent reduction in state funding. For UK, that would be a loss of about $21.2 million.
Monday said the state has still not asked that the 8 percent reduction be made yet, but the university is still preparing.
UK officials continue to pin their hopes on the passage of a federal stimulus bill, Monday told a board committee on Thursday, He added that it would “be a really critical bill for us,” as the university estimated that previously filed versions of the bill — multiple versions of which continue to lack bipartisan support in Congress — would net the university close to $38 million.