Lincoln University stands to lose more than $1.04 million under the state budget Missouri's House passed this week, while gaining only $1 million in funds to match its available federal land grant funding.
Gov. Jay Nixon told reporters Friday the Legislature was making wrong decisions about the future of education.
During his Capitol news conference, the governor reminded reporters he had proposed an additional almost $56 million in higher education performance funding in January, "bringing institutional funding to an all-time high and allowing our colleges and universities to, once again, freeze tuition for Missouri undergraduates."
LU was slated to get $1,041,764 of that money.
He noted all of Missouri's public colleges and universities promised to freeze their tuition at current rates in exchange for the additional money.
"Overall for colleges, we need to support that (extra funding) so we can keep the tuition freeze," Nixon said. "All that's going to happen is tuition is going to skyrocket if the House plan moves forward."
LU President Kevin Rome declined to comment Friday on the House-passed budget, which still must go through the Senate and ultimately be written as a compromise plan between the two chambers.
Rome usually reserves specific comments on the state's part of Lincoln's budget until lawmakers have finished their process.
However, in January after Nixon submitted his budget plan to the Legislature, Rome told the News Tribune, "We are excited about the governor's proposed budget.
"We are in the process of developing our proposed budget scenarios for next year."
LU and the other state-owned schools follow the Missouri government's business year - July 1 to June 30.
Thanks partly to the work of state Reps. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, and Joshua Peters, D-St. Louis, the House-passed budget includes an additional $1 million for Lincoln's federal land grant program.
Nixon doesn't oppose finding more money for LU.
"I'm not against it if there's (available) dollars," he said. However, money remains tight in the state budget, and there isn't enough money for everything people want to do, the governor said.
"We support that institution (LU) significantly," Nixon reported. "But taking money out of performance funding for them, for their core institution - and trying to cover your backside by putting a million dollar earmark out there ... that is a cynical attempt to fool (people)."
The governor added, "(Lawmakers are) slapping earmarks on bills and trying to have press conferences and talk about how they're supporting higher education.
"We're not going to earmark our way to a future in higher education. We need to focus our attention on what the institutions can do, how we can help them in their missions and how we can guarantee that we get the quality of those missions."