June 2, 2015
Guidance on potential furloughs
Submitted by President Kirk Schulz
As the state budget is being debated in Topeka there have been many questions based on media reports about potential furloughs of state employees. Without an approved budget by the Legislature, there is no funding authority to distribute funds to cover the first pay period in Fiscal Year 2016, which begins June 7.
If the Legislature comes to an agreement on increasing revenues and passes a budget by midnight Saturday, June 6, or if the Legislature passes a bill authorizing short-term expenditures for payroll by midnight Saturday, there will be no furloughs.
In anticipation of the worse-case scenario, the Department of Administration will be providing guidelines to Human Capital Services within the next few days of how the university should implement potential furloughs. University employees will be informed no later than noon Friday if furloughs are to be implemented and the plan for implementation.
Since the legislative session has continued much longer than expected, the Kansas Board of Regents has not started the review of tuition proposals. The Board of Regents has tentatively scheduled first reading of tuition proposals for Monday, June 8, with second reading and approval on the regularly scheduled meeting on June 17.
In addition, the university has not distributed any budget information to units. There have been many questions regarding salary increases and preparation of employee contracts. The only salary increases that will be approved in Fiscal Year 2016 will be for faculty promotions, awards and targeted faculty salary enhancements. There will be no across-the-board salary increases approved for any university employees. Therefore departments can begin contract preparations and budget allocation information will be distributed to unit heads later this week.
We will continue to provide additional information as it becomes known over the next week. If you have any questions please contact Cindy Bontrager at cab@k-state.edu or Ethan Erickson at eerickson@k-state.edu.