University System avoids job cuts

As student numbers have risen, state has added more positions.

Gov. Nathan Deal calls it an example of state government doing more with less.

Deal told House and Senate budget writers this week that the number of state employees dropped from 70,716 in fiscal 2008, just as the Great Recession began hammering government finances, to 58,642 in 2017.

But those figures don’t include the state’s biggest employer — the University System of Georgia.

University System figures show the number of full-time employees at Georgia’s colleges and universities rose 17 percent, from 40,209 to 46,953.

System officials point out that student enrollment on campuses grew 19 percent during that period.

While the state’s population has risen since before the Great Recession and demand for state services has likewise increased, Deal said the government has had to “rethink how we deliver services,” using fewer employees, employing better technology and outsourcing services.

“Our agencies have learned to do more with less,” he told lawmakers. “A budget that has gotten bigger does not necessarily equal a government that has gotten bigger.”

The University System, however, runs a personnel-intensive business, with extra students requiring extra teachers and support staff. The Board of Regents has approved consolidating some universities in recent years to cut administrative duplication.

Another huge difference between the University System and much of the rest of state government: Georgia colleges collect tuition and fees to help run schools.

State spending is only now about where it was — per capita — before the Great Recession. The University System, like other agencies, took major budget cuts while the recession and its after-effects hammered the state.

However, the Board of Regents increased tuition to make up for at least part of the loss in state revenue. College tuition skyrocketed some years, particularly at schools such as the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech, in the years affected by the recession.

Tuition has stabilized in recent years as lawmakers have stopped cutting college budgets. The Regents voted last year to increase tuition by 2 percent and froze tuition the year before.