College system runs utility deficit

CHAMPAIGN -- A state audit has found a $117 million deficit in the University of Illinois' utilities budget.

The Illinois auditor general said in a report this week that the three-campus university system had inadequate monitoring and reporting or failed to follow its own policies.

University spokesman Tom Hardy blamed spikes in the cost of power generation between 2003 and 2007. The university generates much of its own power.

Hardy said the university will use savings from debt restructuring to pay off the deficit over six years.

The university's utilities budget is about $100 million a year for campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield.