<p>For one any school that includes hospital operations in the base budget will have a low number as the hospital is usually self-supporting but generates tons of patient revenue and expenses without much if any state support. Michigan is a good example. Around half their budget if for the hospitals which are not state supported. That adds a big number to the budget that is completely separate from the educational operation. Same for large federal-funded research programs. Both these items have been growing much faster than the base educational budget at most schools. Add in dorm operatons and sports and you have large self-supporting net revenue neutral operations within the overall budget. Wisconsin recently put the UW hospitals into a non-university budget independent operation ( still effectively controlled by the UW). That cut the denominator of the total UW budget by about a third so the % of state support now looks much higher than it did using the old total budget.</p>