Gov. Mitch Daniels will announce the state's budget for the next two years today, and without federal stimulus funds, there will almost definitely be less money for state funding.
Ball State economics professor Michael Hicks said fewer funds could reflect cuts for higher education further down the road.
About $2 billion in stimulus money was added to the state's 2009-2011 budget, bringing it to $13.6 billion.
"Indiana is really facing a difficult two-year period," Hicks said. "There will not be somebody else who's going to provide that money again."
Ball State absorbed $15.2 million in budget cuts over the past two years and faces the possibility of more cuts, especially after the Commission for Higher Education proposed the university receive the least amount of incentive-based state funding.
Even so, the university is better off than states like Illinois, Michigan and California, Hicks said.
"They rejected cuts in the past biennium budget," he said. "Now they're faced with a budget hole bigger than the state of Indiana."
With a 75 percent income tax increase, those states don't have any flexibility to improve their economies.
"They're balancing their budgets on the backs of small businesses and households," Hicks said.
Public education in Indiana endured a $300 million budget cut in 2009, and Daniels promised not to cut from K-12 education in the next two years. In fact, he outlined several plans and goals for improving education in his state address Tuesday, such as investing in students who finish high school a year early and go on to further their education.
Hicks said higher education is a major part of the state's economy, but it's hard to imagine it will go unscathed.
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