UT System Blows $30.9 Billion – Talk About a Big Government Bonanza!

Hold onto your ten-gallon hats, folks! The UT System and its 14 institutions just approved a whopping $30.9 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year. That's right, a 9.3% increase or $2.6 billion more than last year. But don't worry, they're expecting a cool $32 billion in revenue, leaving them with a tidy $1.1 billion surplus. Isn't it great when your budget is bigger than some countries' GDP?

The Board of Regents gave this budget the green light on Thursday. Derek Horton, the UT System's chief budget officer, presented this masterpiece, highlighting a $2.8 billion or 9.6% increase in additional revenue compared to last year. Talk about a cash cow!

This budget blowout is apparently due to the system's "gains" in research and healthcare. Health institutions make up almost 70% of the budgeted revenue and expenses, thanks to those hospital and clinic fees. Meanwhile, academic programs rely on federal, state, and local programs, tuition, fees, and state funding. Isn't it nice when everything is funded by someone else's money?

The revenue breakdown is as follows:

• $14.5 billion from hospitals and clinic fees
• $6.6 billion from federal- and state-sponsored programs
• $2.9 billion from state appropriations
• And some chump change from investment income, gifts, educational activities, and enterprises

Where's all this money going, you ask? Personnel costs, of course! They're expecting to hire even more people next year, particularly medical staff. Then there’s travel, maintenance, operations, and those dreaded scholarships and fellowships.

UT-Austin's budget alone is a mind-boggling $4.27 billion for its fiscal 2025 operating budget – that's a $452 million increase from the previous year. Expenses are projected to increase by $367.7 million. But hey, at least their margins have improved!

Vice Chairman Janiece Longoria also mentioned at the meeting that they're setting aside:

• $41.2 million for library, equipment, repair, and rehabilitation projects
• $35.8 million for the Science, Technology and Retention Program
• $20 million for campus programs from the system’s internal lending program or other available sources

And guess who's getting an 8.1% budget boost? The UT System's own administration, now at $213.9 million. Gotta keep those bureaucrats well-fed!

In case you were wondering, the UT System employs 122,000 people, graduates about a third of all undergraduate students in Texas, and hands out half the state's medical degrees. Talk about a monopoly on education!

Last year, the UT System's operating budget was three times larger than the next largest university system in Texas. They also recorded the largest amount in research expenditures in Texas and the second-largest nationwide at $4.3 billion. Guess they're big fans of big spending!

But hey, who needs fiscal responsibility when you can just keep printing money, right?

Source: UT System