The Illinois General Assembly Tuesday approved an NIU budget that would limit faculty salary increases to 2 percent, cut out additional funding for current programs and put a hold on any new programs.

The budget allows an average 2-percent increase in faculty salaries for Fiscal Year 1990-91 compared to a more than 9-percent increase in FY89.

“It stinks,” said NIU President John La Tourette. The increase will not even be able to cover the rate of inflation for faculty members this year, he said. This year’s inflation rate is projected to be 5 percent.

The about $1.85 million increase for personnel service was the only increase approved by the general assembly, La Tourette said.

The Illinois Board of Higher Education recommended an NIU budget for FY91 of about $128 million, said Rich Lazarski, NIU Associate Director of Budget and Planning.

Lazarski said Gov. James Thompson reviewed the budget and reduced it to about $122 million. The Illinois Senate and House added amendments to the budget to take off some money, leaving the budget at about $121 million, he said.

Gov. Thompson will review the budget before June 30 and probably will not decrease the budget any further, Lazarski said, but “only time will tell.”

Lazarski said there is no money for new programming, increasing programs and limited funds for salary increases. “It’s almost a step backwards,” he said. “It’s extremely disappointing.”

In FY89, NIU received about $119 million, he said. The mild increase “seriously erodes programs,” he said.

“It reverses all the improvements made last year,” La Tourette said. Last year NIU “climbed out of the cellar” with the budget, but this year “we fall right back into it,” he said.

Before last year’s budget, Illinois was 49th in the nation in terms of increased funding for education over a 10-year period, La Tourette said.

The FY89 approved budget boosted that rank to 42nd, he said. South Dakota was the one state with less funding, he said.

NIU lost faculty prior to the more than 9-percent increase for salaries, and “we will do everything possible to keep people” at the university, La Tourette said.

La Tourette said the “extremely tight” education budget this year resulted in the decreased money for NIU.

The university will do its best to administer the salaries among the faculty, he said.