FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky State University (KSU) is facing a budget deficit for the current year that could be as high as $7 million, according to testimony before lawmakers this week. 

Last month, Chief Financial Officer Greg Rush, who also serves as the university's Vice President for Finance and Administration, said there was not enough cash to operate past April without help.  

Rush told an education subcommittee Wednesday that he began to learn about the university's "cash problem" after he was brought on board three months ago. 

Clara Ross Stamps, acting president for KSU, Dr. Aaron Thompson, president of the Council on Postsecondary Education and Greg Rush, KSU's chief financial officer, testified before lawmakers Wednesday. (Spectrum News 1/Erin Kelly)

"Essentially, the university didn’t have sufficient cash to pay vendors and make payroll when we got there," Rush said. "We were able to work with [the Council on Postsecondary Education] and the State Budget Office to advance the fourth quarter general fund allotment, which gave the university some breathing room and allowed us to go ahead and meet our commitments."

KSU is the state’s only public historically Black university.

The university has put a hiring freeze in place, stopped nonessential travel and is developing a new budget structure, leaders said. 

Rush testified that many bills had been carried over from prior years. 

“Basically in late 2019, the university began to have a cash problem and began to take some actions to manage that problem which pushed it forward into future fiscal years, to be perfectly honest," he said.

In July, KSU alerted the Board of Regents over concerns about a $15 million-dollar shortfall, leaders said. 

The governor issued an executive order directing the Council on Postsecondary Education to assess the financial situation. That same month, KSU President Dr. M. Christopher Brown II resigned.

Last week, the State Journal reported that it obtained credit card statements through an open records request and found that in his last two years as president, Brown spent more than $73,000 on a university-issued credit card. According to the newspaper, a majority of the spending was for flights and hotels with destinations including the Bahamas, Cancun and Las Vegas. 

The State Journal reported Brown insisted that 100% of the charges were for university purposes. 

Spectrum News 1 left a message for Brown and filed a records request for credit card statements.

Rush and KSU Acting President Clara Ross Stamps would not comment on the State Journal's report Wednesday. 

Rush told lawmakers last month that he has not found evidence of any money being used for a non-university purpose.