Western Kentucky University officials are anxiously waiting for Gov. Matt Bevin to either sign or veto a state budget bill that cuts its Gatton Academy for gifted students and offers no support for its skyrocketing pension costs.

The budget bill that lawmakers rushed through Monday cuts the Gatton Academy by $75,000 each fiscal year, WKU senior vice president for finance and administration Ann Mead said Thursday.

Gatton Academy Director Lynette Breedlove said the change will not affect the residential high school’s enrollment next year. She said the high school has agreed to accept 99 new students next year and that it takes those commitments seriously.

“We will have 192 students next year,” she said.

Before lawmakers passed their budget, WKU and other universities across the state were expecting cuts of 6.25 percent. WKU expected to lose about $4.6 million, but university President Timothy Caboni announced in a campuswide email Tuesday that the cut will be mitigated by money returned to universities’ performance funding pool. The pool rewards universities for graduation rates and other outcomes.

“So while we will lose $4,619,000 in the budget reduction, we will likely gain most of that back in the performance model, bringing our state appropriation reduction to a little less than 1 percent,” he said.

In a report released Thursday, the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy said the state’s budget cuts to higher education will limit Kentucky students’ access to college.

The report noted state higher education funding has been cut by 35 percent since 2008 when adjusted for inflation. It also noted that all of the state’s universities, minus the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, are facing a total of $39.2 million in pension contributions in 2019.

As universities face declining state support on top of their escalating pension costs, they pass the cost on to students through tuition hikes.

“Tuition has already gone up an average of 52 percent when adjusted for inflation between 2006 and 2016, with all but 2 institutions raising tuition last year as well,” the center’s report said.

It can also reduce academic quality when universities are forced to cut staff and programs to reduce costs.

Earlier this month, WKU eliminated 62 full-time positions and 57 vacant positions in an initial round of staffing cuts. At the time, Caboni said more cuts would follow once the General Assembly passed a budget.

But Robbin Taylor, vice president for public affairs, said in an email Thursday that it’s still too soon for the university to make its second round of cuts.

“There are still a number of unknowns for us, particularly as we wait to see what the governor’s vetoes look like,” she said.

Lawmakers are on a 10-day recess for Bevin to sign or veto legislation. They are scheduled to return to work for two days next week, where they could override Bevin’s veto, according to The Associated Press.

Lawmakers returned full funding for WKU’s statewide weather network called the Kentucky Mesonet. However, they excluded money for matching funds that would help universities fix up aging facilities and campus infrastructure.

Bevin originally recommended $300 million for the bond pool. Mead said WKU was looking at funding $60 million in projects for existing facilities and infrastructure. She said $26.5 million of that would have come from the state.

The university may also miss out on support for its employer contributions to the Kentucky Employees Retirement System, which Caboni has called “the primary driver of fixed increases to our operating budget.”

Mead said WKU’s share of pension costs will jump from 49 percent of an employee’s salary to 83 percent, amounting to a 70 percent increase. The university will have to come up with an additional $5.5 million to cover that increase, she said.

Bevin vetoed Thursday House Bill 362, which allowed pension cost increases to the Kentucky Retirement System to be phased in over 10 years and capped hikes at 12 percent per year.

While he was supportive of that provision, Bevin rejected another measure in the bill that would have made it easier for agencies to leave the state’s troubled pension system, according to The Associated Press.

“In their current form, the buy-out provisions are well-intended, but provide too much risk to the solvency of both the Kentucky Employees Retirement System and County Employees Retirement System,” Bevin wrote in his veto message.

Bevin encouraged lawmakers to re-enact the phase-in portion of the bill but said the buy-out provision would cost taxpayers $2 billion.

“These provisions, as currently written, will lead to cash flow issues and shift even more of the pension burden to future taxpayers,” he wrote.

The Senate approved House Bill 362 by a 35-3 margin and the House passed it 90-2, meaning majorities are likely possible in both chambers if lawmakers chose to override Bevin’s veto when they meet next week.