The budget planning and allocation process begins approximately 16 months in advance of the fiscal year for which funding is requested. Within this timeframe, three evolving budget documents are prepared.
Preliminary Budget Request:
The initial step in the budget planning process of the Kansas Board
of Regents is the meeting of the Budget Development and Tuition
Committee,
a subcommittee of the board. The committee is composed of Board
of
Regents members plus administrative, faculty and student
representatives
from the Regents universities. The committee is responsible for
formulating
guidelines for the development of the Regents universities preliminary
budget requests submitted to the Board of Regents in June. The
guidelines
formulated address (1) base budget improvements (increases in
unclassified
salaries, classified salaries, student salaries and other operating
expenditures);
(2) special enhancement requests (systemwide and/or campus specific
issues);
(3) estimates of tuition revenue based on proposed tuition increases;
and
(4) program information concerning the University's enrollment and core
performance indicators.
In determining components to be included in the Preliminary Budget Request, the committee (with input from staff in the Board of Regents Office) considers factors such as the results of studies from the peer cost comparison program, input from the universities through the Council of Presidents, inflation rates, projections of state revenues, and systemwide priorities. These factors help to place parameters on the entire Regents system budget so that preliminary budget requests are reasonable and can be justified to external constituents. Committee recommendations are forwarded to the Board of Regents for approval at the April and May meetings of the board. The resulting guidelines must be followed by the Regents institutions in the development of the preliminary budget requests submitted to the board in June.
At the June meeting, the board reviews the budgets of each of the universities and places final approval upon items to be included in budgets submitted to the Governor and Legislature on the following September 15. The Regents universities may not request any item in their individual documents which has not received board approval.
Budget Request Document:
A budget request document, based on the recommendations of the Kansas
Board of Regents, is prepared for submission to the Governor and
Legislature.
This budget is due on September 15 prior to the beginning of the
request
year addressed in the document. It is first reviewed by personnel
in the State Division of Budget. Recommendations of the Division
of Budget are forwarded to the Governor and shared with the Regents
universities.
Universities have the opportunity to present an appeal of Division of
Budget
recommendations to the Governor. Based on Division of Budget
recommendations
and appeal information from the universities, the Governor presents his
proposed budget to the Legislature in early January. The initial
appropriation bill that begins the Legislative process contains the
Governor's
budget. The appropriation bill is reviewed and debated by the
House
Appropriations Committee and the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Appeals for restoration of funds approved by the Kansas Board of
Regents
but deleted by the Governor are possible at this stage of the
process.
The final appropriations action by the full Legislature that is later
signed
by the Governor establishes the spending authority for the University.
Annual Operating Budget:
Internal allocation of resources made available to Wichita State
University
by legislative and gubernatorial actions is accomplished through
preparation
of the Annual Operating Budget. Using guidelines provided by
central
administration, this process begins at the departmental level with the
entering of recommended budget information into the University's online
Budget Information System. The review process progresses up
through
budget review officers to the President who approves the final
budget.
The Annual Operating Budget is presented to the Kansas Board of Regents
in July.
Revision Date:
February 25, 1999