Sacramento State will be implementing a 6 percent budget reduction over the next three years, President Alexander Gonzalez said during a presentation to faculty and staff of the 2006-07 budget at Wednesday’s town hall meeting in the Hinde Auditorium.

The impact of these reductions is not yet clear, but Gonzalez framed the $6.5 million reduction as a significant, but not a devastating, portion of the $197 million total operating budget at Sac State’s disposal.

This reduction will be implemented as an attempt to reduce the deficit created in Sac State’s budget over the past three years.

Since 2003, enrollment at Sac State has been below projected goals, affecting university funds. To make up for the revenue lost from students who didn’t enroll, the eight colleges at Sac State have been spending discretionary money to keep from making budget cuts, Gonzalez said. Discretionary money is a type of reserve held by each college for unexpected expenses. It is important that the various colleges not deplete their discretionary funds and create a large deficit, Gonzalez said.

“We didn’t balance the budget in that respect,” Gonzalez said of previous years.

In order to meet these reductions, class sizes may be increased, said Joe Sheley, the provost and vice president of academic affairs. Faculty may also need to consider offering online classes, or classes with an online component, he said.

Gonzalez said Sac State must be prepared for a completely different way of organizing classes.

“I think the model is broken,” Gonzalez said. “We have been used to a certain way of doing things for so long.”

The cost to maintain Sac State’s aging buildings has been increasing every year, and deferred maintenance costs for the school are now between $90 million and $100 million, Gonzalez said.

“Our facilities are not up to what they should be in many of the buildings on campus,” Gonzalez said, adding that many of the older buildings on campus such as Sacramento and Douglass Halls are inefficient, leading to wasted energy in the summer and winter months.

“Some of these buildings are probably the worst (in the California State University system),” Gonzalez said of the efficiency of some of Sac State’s older buildings.

Cody Kitaura can be reached at [email protected]