Higher education institutions have been asked to take a 7 percent cut in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the state confronts budget shortfalls, Gov. Eric Holcomb says other state agencies were asked to make cuts before K-12 and higher education.

“These are difficult decisions. Decisions we don’t want to make or like to make, but under these circumstances, we have to,” Holcomb says.

Indiana Office of Management and Budget director Cris Johnston says education accounts for more than 50 percent of the state’s annual budget.

He currently predicts the state will have a $2 billion budget shortfall because of “Stay-At-Home” business closures.

“It’s really the economic impact that resulted from this sort of self-induced coma to the economy that we’re working our way out of that’s going to have the more lasting impact,” Johnston says.

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Gov. Holcomb says his administration is working to protect K-12 education from budget cuts as much as possible. Details on cuts are expected next Wednesday.

Contact Lauren at lchapman@wfyi.org or follow her on Twitter at @laurenechapman_.