Let's Cut the Bullshit and Look at the Numbers - UNR Budget

Listening to all the fluff, fear mongering debates, proposals, and straight out bullshit in regards to UNR's budget crisis has caused me to join the discussion. After much Googling, I have pierced through countless pages of lies and misinformation to arrive at the numbers.

Let us begin our journey as we explore UNR's past budgets, specifically the Revenues by Appropriations and Source of Funds beginning in each fiscal period from the year 2000.
Please Note: The difference between the total amount and the State Funds account consists of tuition, student dues, donations, etc. The only thing I will be noting is the State Funds account, which is where the source of the debate lies, and where the majority of the money comes from :


For 2000-2001, the great state of Nevada gave a whopping: $114,016,759

Let's continue to 2001-2002:

For 2001-2002, the great state of Nevada gave a whopping: $126,622,136, for a difference of nearly $12,605,377 from the previous year. That is a 10% raise! Not bad!

Let's continue to 2002-2003:
For 2002-2003, the great state of Nevada gave a whopping: $133,395,138, for a difference of nearly $6,733,002 from the previous year. That is a 5% raise! Not bad!

Let's continue to 2003-2004:

For 2003-2004, the great state of Nevada gave a whopping: $160,107,319, for a difference of nearly $26,712,181 from the previous year. That is a 17% raise! AWESOME!

Let's continue to 2004-2005:
For 2004-2005, the great state of Nevada gave a whopping: $169,353,059, for a difference of nearly $9,245,740 from the previous year. That is a 5.5% raise! Not bad!

Let's continue to 2005-2006:

For 2005-2006, the great state of Nevada gave a whopping: $184,120,286, for a difference of nearly $14,767,227 from the previous year. That is an 8% raise! Not bad!

Let's continue to 2006-2007:

For 2006-2007, the great state of Nevada gave a whopping: $197,895,116, for a difference of nearly $13,774,830 from the previous year. That is a 7% raise! Not bad!

Let's continue to 2007-2008:

For 2007-2008, the great state of Nevada gave a whopping: $207,175,572, for a difference of nearly $9,280,456 from the previous year. That is a 4.5% raise! Not bad!

Now, before I continue, I thought making a graph of the progression is in call... besides, I love making graphs, who doesn't?
Wow! Thanks Nevada! From the year 2001-2008, you have given UNR a pay increase of $95,158,813! That is a 55% pay raise! (% calculated as a lump sum) I suspect neither you, or I, or any type of private entity has gotten a pay raise like that so easily. Too bad we're short-minded and selfish individuals that don't consider the past ten years and instead dwell only upon ourselves and our current situation...

This now leads to the topic at hand: The Fiscal Year of 2008-2009. Unfortunately, after pulling together this data, I have been left with more questions than answers. The many speakers and news articles I hear and read speak of a hysteria that is capable of dropping entire parts of the college, firing teachers, expanding class sizes, lowering possible credit hours per student, and demolishing the new student union, knowledge center, the soon-to-be new gym, and the sky as we know it if we don't take action. Good thing they installed those $300,000+ wireless blue panic beacons! (emphasis added for wild speculation) It has been established that on average, the school experiences an 8% increase in funding each year. Not all that bad considering how horribly school administrators and students speak of our great state. Considering this information, it draws me to these questions:

• If the 14% budget cut speculation is true, does this 14% already take into account our annual raise? To clarify: Let's say our school administrators predicted an 8% budget raise as they would usually receive, and they already spent that money on those invaluable administrative assistants that they can't fire due to teachers/workers unions and government bureaucracy in general, does that mean the 14% will be subtracted from the 8% raise already?
  
• From 2005 to 2008, the school has experienced a pay raise of 18.3%. Let's just say, for the sake of an argumentative example, our school bureaucrats were fiscally responsible and did not already spend what they were counting on. With a 14% budget cut off of our last fiscal cycle, does that mean we would have to return to a budget we had 2 YEAR AGO?? Say it ain't so!
  

I hope to have established that instead of simply jumping on the budget bandwagon, or any other type of misinformed public hysteria for that matter (Y2K, crop circles, etc...), you take the time to become informed, and then find an inference. Quit claiming to have Nevada pride, but then to turn around and slander it based upon your ignorance. It's disgusting. Instead of jumping to step #8 like what so many of us tend to do, lets calmly sit down, determine the problem at hand, and proceed calmly and thoroughly with step #2....