The push and pull of budget negotiations between Raleigh and Chapel Hill has begun again as 2014-15 budget talks have begun, and the state’s budget director, Art Pope, says the UNC system is asking for too much.

The Board of Governors sent the legislature a budget request 11.3 percent greater than that of the 2013-14 fiscal year. Pope replied saying that “it simply is not (a) realistic” request. He also said the request made by UNC was based on needs when it should have been a true budget. However, President Tom Ross said he and the University had a statutory duty to present the needs.

In December, the Office of State Budget and Management sent out a budget instruction letter asking all state agencies to submit a budget reduction and expansion request. In that, it needed to “equate to a net savings of a minimum of two percent of the agency’s 2014-15 certified appropriation.”

Pope said the Board of Governors should reconsider its request and submit a “more realistic proposal.”

To read the response by Pope to the Board of Governors, click here.

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