College officials tackle budget outlay projections
While numbers may change, the final theme — funding shortages remain a fact of life — remains the same
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Thursday, March 20, 2008 11:15 AM PDT
ONTARIO — As they begin working on the budget for the 2008 to 2009 fiscal year, Treasure Valley Community College officials said they are happy they know how much state support the school should receive for the year, without major action by the Legislature.
Unless there is change in the state funding formula because of economic issues, TVCC will receive about $6.3 million for the year, college president Jim Sorensen said.
The state funding is a reimbursement on each community college’s FTEs — full-time equivalents — with payments made quarterly. In his monthly report to the TVCC board made Tuesday, Randy Griffin, TVCC dean of administrative services, said the college was told in October its payment would be adjusted downward by $130,000 for the rest of the year because of flat, or an overall loss, of FTEs at TVCC.
“We still will have more new dollars available for the next year, but not as much as we anticipated at the beginning of this fiscal year unless our enrollment picks back up during the remainder of the school year,” Griffin said. However, Griffin said, enrollment at TVCC is growing and looking very strong.
While state reimbursement will still exceed the budget by the end of this fiscal year, Griffin noted the excess will need to be carried over to next year’s budget for increased operational purposes.
“We will still have our on-going usual budget challenges in 2008-2009, he said. Besides the $6.3 million in state support, about $4.7 million will come from tuition and fees, and about $2.75 million will come from property taxes in Malheur County and the Huntington area in the college district. All the faculty and staff have presented their funding requests for different programs and departments.
With those added in, the spending requests are more than $2 million over budget, Sorensen said. It will be a matter of trying to squeeze in as many requests possible.
“Well there are lot of needs,” Sorensen said. “There is not enough money.”
Treasure Valley Community College Director of Public Relations Abby Lee said the requests included more technology for the classroom, funding for a medical assistant program and additional equipment for the vocational-technical area.
