Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens last week withheld a portion of funds for higher education in the state’s fiscal year 2018 budget. Due to the university’s budget planning, which anticipated additional withholdings, Missouri S&T will continue with its budget realignment as planned.

Due to lower-than-expected tax receipts from 2016 and rising health care costs, Gov. Greitens is restricting more than $250 million statewide to balance the budget for the new fiscal year (July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018).

These restrictions include $24 million from the budget for higher education. Due to the governor’s withholdings, in addition to legislative action, three line items proposed by Missouri S&T will receive no funding in fiscal year 2018. These three items are: an expansion of Project Lead the Way to rural communities in southern Missouri, continuing education programs in Clay County and an expansion of Missouri S&T cooperative engineering program with Missouri State University. Missouri S&T will not receive any state funding for these three items this fiscal year.

Total state allocations to Missouri S&T will be $49.4 million for core operations in fiscal year 2018. That is less than the $50.8 million previously expected.

“We have anticipated this added withholding and are able to absorb it through a reduction in our enrollment contingency budget,” says Walt Branson, vice chancellor for finance and operations at Missouri S&T.

The latest budget and campus realignment documents are available at http://financeadmin.mst.edu/budgetplanning.