University of Colorado President Bruce Benson expressed frustration today before a panel of lawmakers over regulations he said hindered the university from using best business practices.

“If we want to do any real estate transactions, we have to use one agency. They cut a 1 percent deal off the top. What’s the value added?” Benson said. “I’ll be honest with you. I’m really irritated with this,” declared Benson during a hearing before the state legislature’s Joint Budget Committee.

“Utilizing our experts…is what we want to be able to do,” Benson said.

The university is asking the legislature for the ability to set fiscal rules appropriate for the business needs of the university as part of a larger request for legislation that would grant more flexibility for the university to address the reality of diminishing state funding.

The committee’s Rep. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, was receptive to Benson’s overture.

“I’d like to see and would welcome some very specific ideas for legislation that you might have,” Lambert said. “Obviously we’re going to have to cut quite a bit out of the state budget. I assume higher education won’t be immune from that.”

Legislation is already being drafted according to the committee’s chair, Rep.Jack Pommer, D-Boulder. Pommer said the pending bill, still a work in progress, would allow precisely the kind of flexibility that Benson and other higher-ed chiefs are seeking.