In anticipation of being asked to cut the budget once again, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia is meeting on Wednesday to discuss a temporary fee for students and an increase in the employees’ portion of insurance premiums in order to bring the budget cuts to 8 percent for the year.

Dr. Beheruz Sethna, president of the University of West Georgia, is not surprised that the Board of Regents is taking this step.

“We’ve already taken the six (percent cuts),” Sethna said. “I absolutely feared and believed that it would probably be worse than six.”

If passed, he estimates the added fees would bring an additional $750,000 in revenue to the university in the spring semester if applied to all students, part-time and full-time alike. However, he’s not sure how far that would go in curbing the cuts.

“Prudent fiscal management would imply that we would not work under the assumption that this is it for the budget cuts,” Sethna said. “So, I suspect some of the money we’ll probably hold just in case the budget cuts get even worse.”

That’s a tactic the university used in April when it looked like the state was headed for a recession, he said.

UWG administrators are just starting to do planning based on the numbers released by the board. Those numbers could change depending on board action tomorrow, Sethna said. However, any planning will be made to have as little impact on the students as possible, he said. The one thing the university is determined to maintain is the quality of the education the students will receive, Sethna said.

“It’s a serious cut,” Sethna said. “It’s a serious hit on the institution. It’s a serious hit on the students. It’s a serious hit on the faculty and staff. ... It’s a matter of how can we best meet this budget-cut scenario.”

This is the second cut the university system is making. This summer, the governor asked all state agencies to make budget cuts of 6 percent. The regents asked the universities to put together budgets cutting 5 percent, 8 percent and 10 percent. In October, the 5-percent cuts were accepted by the board and the system cut the remaining 1 percent at the system level.

“We have to be proactive on this,” said spokesman John Millsaps. “As of January we are pretty much at the halfway point of the current fiscal year and as you know the longer we wait to take any action to reduce the budget the more difficult that becomes to achieve.”

Waiting would also limit the system’s options. By taking action now, they have the ability to add a fee and reduce cuts and that option would be gone after students were already registered.

If the board takes these actions now, the system could reach the 8-percent cuts through the reductions in insurance costs, increasing the deferred maintenance at the system’s institutions and the additional revenue brought in by the fees, he said.

“The things we’re wrestling with are how do you achieve that and maintain academic quality in the classroom,” Millsaps said.

Rep. Mark Butler, R-Carrollton, said it is probable that state agencies, including the university system, will be asked to make further cuts once the legislators amend the state’s budget.

“If I was a betting man, I would say that we’re probably going to be closer to 8 (percent) than 6 (percent),” Butler said.

State revenue is down 2.4 percent at this point, and the first six months of the fiscal year, July through January, are usually the strongest, he said. The holes have to be plugged somehow and the feeling in the Legislature is that cuts are preferable to raising taxes, Butler said.

“If we have to make 8-percent cuts, we’ll make them,” he said. “If we have to make 10-percent cuts, we’ll make them. It’s not going to be easy, but that’s what the people want us to do. They don’t want us to raise taxes.”

The state does have a rainy-day fund that had reached record levels of $1.7 billion, and it has been dipping into the fund to help balance the budget, Butler said. The state has roughly $1 billion left in the fund, he said. However, cleaning the fund out is not a good idea, especially when no one knows how long this recession will last or when things will hit bottom, he said.

“We’re a long way from out of this thing,” he said. “We’re just going to have to tighten our belts.”