Budget Process and University Planning Calendar

The budget is developed throughout the fiscal year which begins on July 1st and ends on June 30th. The following budget related activities occur within the listed general time frames.

Due to a decade-long level of austerity extending from recurring state General Fund appropriations reductions, combined with soft-to-severe enrollment declines and the emergence of one-time Performance Funding awards, the assumptions, as in prior decades, of the receipt of additional recurring resources, normally a component of internal growth planning, can no longer support annual exercises that assume additional discretionary resources for planning purposes.

July to September

Early monitoring of University enrollment, in direct coordination with the Accounting and Controller and senior Vice President of Finance and Administration functions of the University, in addition to recognizing other sizeable external impacts in conjunction with the University government relations team, captures possible risks for annualized impacts.

September to December

Preliminary forecasts based on pessimistic financial assumptions are completed for tuition and fees as well as considerations of impacts to the University General Fund appropriation and other external resources.

November to February

Vice Presidential or equivalent units submit proposals for funding requests. These include Capital requests, Maintenance & Operating expense budget requests, and requests for additional personnel. Given the existing and assumed level of continued austerity from fiscal year 2008 through the fiscal 2021 period, only minimal growth in any of these categories is possible and is not at all probable.

March to May

Tuition and Fee forums are held throughout campus.
Proposed tuition rates/mandatory fees are approved by Council on Postsecondary Education, CPE.

May to June

Budget pool allocations are entered in EKU Direct (Self-Serve) or the Banner financial system.
Board of Regents approves operating budget.

Every even-numbered fiscal year

During the Spring, prior to an even-numbered fiscal year, the Capital Plan Advisory Board, CPAB, in Frankfort, conducts a six-year capital planning process which mandates input from public postsecondary entities in the Commonwealth.
The first two-years of this plan then corresponds significantly with the University capital request for the following Fall biennial budget process.
CPE conducts a series of work group and public meetings during this period to develop the overall budget request parameters for the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Cabinet, which comprises all public postsecondary entities in Kentucky. The University must adhere to these parameters.
These parameters direct core policy elements of the Executive Branch University biennial budget request submitted to the Office of State Budget Director, OSBD, and the Legislative Research Commission, LRC.
This two-year budget request is later enacted by the Legislature and signed by the Governor and creates the next two-year framework for the University operating budget and related capital initiatives.