A pay raise for NIU faculty and staff members was recommended as part of Gov. James Thompson’s budget for fiscal 1988, but funds for all of NIU’s capital improvements were not.

Jim Bray, Thompson’s press secretary, said the governor’s budget proposals Wednesday included a request for $100 million in additional funds for higher education. Among Thompson’s priorities are a 6 percent pay increase for faculty and staff members at state institutions and raising the maximum amount of the Monetary Award Program to $3,200, Bray said.

Additional revenue to accommodate the increase in the higher education budget will be generated through some of Thompson’s tax proposals, also announced Wednesday, Bray said.

Thompson recommended lowering the state sales tax from 5 percent to 4.5 percent but broadening the tax base effective Jan. 1, 1988, he said. Thompson also recommended raising the state income tax from 2.5 percent to 3 percent effective July 1 and raising the personal exemption from $1,000 to $1,250 effective Jan. 1, 1989, Bray added.

A tuition increase, recommended by the Illinois Board of Higher Education, of 4 percent for state institutions was not mentioned by Thompson as a source of additional funds for higher education, Bray said. “The governor is not taking a stand on the issue until the governing boards of state colleges take a position,” he added.

oderick Groves, Board of Regents’ chancellor, NIU’s governing body, said the issue of the increase is unresolved. “To my knowledge, no governing body has taken a position on the tuition increase,” he said.

Large capital improvement projects were not high on Thompson’s priority list. NIU’s $17.2 million request for construction of the Faraday II addition and the request for $775,500 for planning of the engineering building were not recommended for funding for fiscal 1988, Bray said. The Faraday addition, planned to be located south of Faraday Hall, will provide additional office, laboratory and classroom space for the chemistry and physics departments.

Melissa Skilbeck, spokesman for the Capital Development Board, said not recommending funds for a project does not mean it has been cancelled. More than $900,000 was already approved for the planning of Faraday II, “so sooner or later they are going to put it up,” she said. “That planning money is scheduled for release in June,” Skilbeck added.

More than $1.8 million was recommended for the replacement and repair of steam lines at NIU, Skilbeck said. Steam lines are scheduled for replacement in Anderson, Gilbert and Wirtz Halls.

IBHE member Richard Wagner said Thompson’s budget recommendations were “bold and visionary.” He said he was pleased Thompson basically followed the IBHE’s recommendations which gave a higher priority to small projects concerned more with repair. With a limited budget there are certain projects that have more immediate needs, he said.

owever, Ross Hodel, IBHE deputy director of fiscal affairs, expressed regret that some capital improvement projects were not recommended for funding. “I am hopeful the General Assembly will pick up on those,” he said. In its upcoming session, the General Assembly will take into account IBHE and gubernatorial recommendations and determine the state’s fiscal budget.

State Rep. John Countryman, R-DeKalb, said he was encouraged to see an increase in the higher education budget but discouraged that Thompson did not adequately address the issue of tax reform. “I do not think, he (Thompson) has much of a chance at getting his tax proposals through the General Assembly,” he said.