The purpose of this work is to provide higher education lobbyists with empirical evidence to support their arguments for better funding in today's tight budgetary times. This work explains two primary factors that contribute to the largely false impression of higher education's wastefulness which, unfortunately pervades both legislatures and the general public today. Relevant background for these and related issues is provided, as are some possible methods for increasing funding and curtailing costs. Certain specific detail is provided for Florida and the University of South Florida (USF), because such detail was available. The primary causal factors of higher education's perceived spendthrift nature are: (1) The "Cost Disease of the Public Sector" (Baumol & Oates, 1976), which assures that higher education's costs must rise more rapidly than general societal costs; and (2)government-based "Shadow Economic Statistics," which make these cost increases look far greater than they actually are (Williams, 2006). (Contains 3 figures and 13 footnotes.)