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With the Board of Trustee’s approval, the Budget Office submits the University's budget
requests to the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) as part of the Resource
Allocation Management Program (RAMP) documents. IBHE reviews and analyzes requests
from public universities, community colleges and related higher education agencies
and produces its budget recommendations for higher education for operations, grants,
and capital improvements, which are sent to the appropriate budget staffs of the Governor's
Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) and members of the General Assembly.
The Illinois Constitution requires the Governor to prepare and submit a state budget
to the General Assembly that includes recommended spending levels for state agencies
based on estimated funds available from tax collections and other sources, and state
debt and liabilities as developed by the GOMB. Per state mandate, GOMB prepares the
Governor's annual state budget and advises the Governor on the availability of revenues
and the allocation of those resources to agency programs.”
The Governor presents his/her budget recommendations in an address to the General
Assembly each year on the third Wednesday in February. Both the Illinois House and
Illinois Senate hold budget hearings with state universities during the two months
immediately following the governor's address. The version of the budget passed by
the General Assembly, usually at the end of the legislative session, may provide an
appropriation different from that proposed by the Governor. The Governor may reduce
or veto a line of appropriation from the bill as passed by the General Assembly, without
affecting the rest of the appropriation bill; but, those actions may be reversed in
the fall sessions by the General Assembly with the necessary vote to override. Once
approved by both Houses and signed by the Governor, the new budget is ready for implementation
beginning July 1.
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The budget development is a two-year process. It is a collaborative effort between
the various department heads, their staff, committees and their division vice presidents
that involve developing budget plans to be implemented in future fiscal years. For
example, budget development plans for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 are initiated in
FY2023. The president, vice presidents and senior administrators, in collaboration
with their operating unit heads, develop budget request priorities. The Budgeting, Planning, Assessment and Reporting Forms (BPAR) which started in FY2023 must be completed to make proposals for new projects and
budget expenditures based on strategic goals, and then assess the effectiveness of
the projects. New budget priorities approved by the division heads must be presented
to the University Budget Committee (UBC) as part of the annual budget requests.
The UBC meets with the president, vice presidents, and senior administrators and reviews
all requests and rationales. The UBC was created by the Board of Trustees to widen
representation in the budgetary process among the University's constituencies. The
committee has diverse membership with representatives from each major division in
the University and with participation from the faculty, administration, civil service
and the student body. The committee then compiles and prepares a summary of requests
and sends budget recommendations for the next two (2) fiscal years to the President.
The President then submits the University's operating and capital appropriation budget
requests to the Board of Trustees for review and approval.
Refer to the schedules for the budget process below.
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Final responsibility for the Internal Operating Budget of the University rests with
the University’s Board of Trustees (BOT). The President presents the annual operating
budget to the Board of Trustees for review and approval.
Beginning fiscal year 2005, preliminary budget review and approval is made by the
BOT prior to July 1 for the upcoming fiscal year, as part of their fiduciary responsibility
to review, approve, and provide oversight of the institution’s annual budget. The
preliminary budget approval is based on estimated spending plans for the fiscal year.
The University allocates funds to the departments and divisions for their use and
distribution. Once the process of allocation has been completed, the detailed budget
information is input into the Banner system on a line item basis. All accounts administered
by the University must have an operating budget allocated by line item before expenditures
can be processed. An operating budget is a detailed plan of revenues and/or expenditures
for a program or department of the University for the fiscal year, normally from July
1 through the following June 30.
Final approval, at the unit detail level, is made by the Board in September. The Board
is kept apprised of all material budget impacts and changes through meetings of the
Board’s Finance and Audit Committee. Once the University’s internal approvals are
finalized the Board approved operating budget is sent to the IBHE.
Budget information is entered into the Banner system on a line item basis. A budget
book is completed on a summary and departmental basis by line item, and distributed
to the BOT, president, vice presidents and the Library in pdf format. Online access
to the budget book is also available to the president, vice presidents, deans, fiscal
officers and UBC members via Cougar Connect.
Budgetary activities are then reported on and monitored periodically. Fiscal officers
use CSU X-Press to view their budget and actual transactions online. This module provides
internal management information.
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