It looks like Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner may be taking a cue from Governor Scott Walker.

The Northwest Herald reported.

Bruce Rauner’s higher education cut larger than expected, would affect all aspects of NIU

Northern Illinois University officials are considering reducing staff, restructuring academic programs and pursuing more grants after Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget proposal included a 31 percent cut in NIU’s state funding.

In his first budget address to the Illinois General Assembly on Wednesday, Rauner called for $6 billion in overall cuts for the fiscal year that starts July 1. Among them is a $387 million cut in higher education funding, including a $29 million reduction in state funding for NIU. The funding reduction represents about 6.8 percent of the university’s $425 million budget for the 2014-15 school year. NIU received about $93 million in state funding this school year.

“Reductions of this magnitude affect all aspects of the university,” NIU’s Chief Financial Officer Alan Phillips said.

NIU officials had braced for a 20 percent reduction in state appropriations, which along with tuition are a major source of funding, Phillips said. He cautioned that the university wouldn’t have final appropriation numbers until May, and ultimately, the reduction could be less than Rauner’s original proposal.

“We have done some work in anticipating what impact state funding would have on the university, but what the governor recommended is much higher than what we anticipated,” Phillips said.