Arizona Board of Regents OKs involuntary leaves to reduce spending

The Arizona Board of Regents voted unanimously Tuesday to declare a state of financial emergency at Arizona's three public universities to authorize and implement involuntary unpaid leaves for employees.

Details of the furloughs are left to each university president's discretion, but regents said granting exceptions to board policies on employment, vacation, sick leave and holiday pay would enable each university to limit layoffs when dealing with expected budget cuts.

Allison Vaillancourt, University of Arizona vice president for human resources, said after the regents' meeting that only UA employees paid with state funds would be subject to the furlough, if UA President Robert N. Shelton implements it. Some UA employees have salaries that are paid totally, or in part, through federal research grants.

Vaillancourt said UA employees on the lower end of the pay scale worry they would not be able to survive if forced to take unpaid leave.

"What we are looking at is reaching some (pay) level where we would hold some employees harmless and they would not be required to take the furlough," Vaillancourt said.

UA will not make a decision on furloughs until after the state determines budget cuts for state agencies, which is expected in mid-February.

The furloughs, of which the lengths were not addressed, are only one of a number of consequences the university presidents detailed for legislators Monday when asking the lawmakers to cap a higher education budget cut at $100 million. About $40 million of that would be borne by UA.

The state is facing a budget shortfall of about $1.6 billion this fiscal year, which ends June 30. Leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees have presented budget options that would cut university budgets by $243 million this year, but a newly revised proposal has smaller cuts.

Regents and presidents of UA, ASU and Northern Arizona universities said cuts of $243 million would "decimate" the university system.

While the furloughs will help universities bear budget cuts, they will also hurt the state because there will be less income tax revenue from those reduced salaries, Vaillancourt said.