Illinois owes $11.7 million to Eastern, but Eastern’s treasurer is hopeful that the amount will be paid back by the end of 2012.

Treasurer Paul McCann said all the universities the state owes money to are paid in the same increments.

“The state is paying down as they get money, and they’re keeping everybody at just about the same percentage of unpaid across the state,” he said. “It doesn’t make it any better or worse; it just puts everybody in the same place.”

McCann said the state treasurer and the comptroller feel that Eastern will receive the money it is owed before the end of the fiscal year.

“We are in about the same place we were a year ago,” he said.

McCann said on top of the $11.7 million the state owes Eastern for Fiscal Year 2012, they also owe a little more than $8 million for FY 13 and about $4 million in Monetary Award Program grant money, bringing the total to around $24 million owed by the state.

“It was a hard lesson when we first started having our reimbursements withheld,” he said. “We quickly learned how to survive.”

McCann said there are some monies that are set aside over the years and put in equipment reserves for big projects.

“There are also other unrestricted monies around the university that we can borrow,” he said.

McCann said the way Eastern uses its income has also changed.

“It used to be that we’d use all the Springfield money first, and we’d save tuition money until the end of the year,” he said. “Now we’re using the tuition money as soon as we get it in and using the appropriated money after that.”

He said the cash flow does not change much, but the order in which the money is used does.

“In general, we have not made any major cuts,” he said. “I go through every expenditure every day to give a fresh set of eyes to see if this is something we really need to be doing.”

McCann said if he knows what he anticipates for spending, he will know what the university has in terms of cash flow.

“Second guessing can come in handy,” he said. “People know that I look and think about whether or not we really need certain things.”

McCann said campus does a great job of saving money by getting vendors down to the lowest price and by limiting travel.

“We’ve cut back across the board about 25 percent on supplies,” he said. “It makes people think twice.”

McCann said the single biggest expense on campus is salaries, and that the biggest cost savings that have come through have been from not increasing salaries and keeping them level.

“Over the last two or three years, that’s where the greatest savings have come from,” he said.

McCann said he hopes Eastern has the $11.7 million by Dec. 31.

“We will get that money in, but in the meantime, we will be spending $11 million more in this year,” he said. “I would like to see, year over year, that money the state owes us to decrease.”

Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].