Texas colleges work to gather 7% refund
by Connie Yu, Reporter

   TCC will lose roughly $3 million for the remaining year as a result of Gov. Rick Perry's announcement a week ago to reduce spending in all agencies. The announcement adds more frost on the school's already under-sized budget while demands for resources and instructors from an enrollment increase continue to rise.

   Dr. William Lace, executive assistant to TCC's chancellor, said an immediate reduction in spending may entail a hiring freeze, limitation on travel expenses and re-evaluation of printing costs for materials such as catalogs and schedules.

   Increasing tuition rates, reducing faculty positions and eliminating some summer classes are also among the college district's considerations in trimming expenses.

   Lace said that TCC administration met as a Chancellor's cabinet Monday to discuss the options to use in its budget reduction plan.

   Twenty-three vacancies, from clerical to faculty positions, are currently posted at the human resource department. Other positions, including all adjunct instructors and custodial employees that the department hires all the time, amount to more than 80 positions, according to the department's Web site. If a hiring freeze occurs, these positions may not be filled, Lace said.

Texas Colleges React

   Public colleges and universities all over Texas are trying to comply with Gov. Perry's request to return at least 7 percent of the funding they received from the last state legislative session in 2001. The governor's decision came just two weeks after the start of the semester.

   Many colleges, however, found themselves hitting stumbling blocks as they tried to come up with the money. The state money they received was for a two-year period prior to this year's legislative session. Going into the second year of the period, funding from the state is often encumbered, if not spent, making it all the more troublesome for colleges to give back.

   "We have spent [it], so the money that we are giving back to the state is coming out of the tuition and tax payers' money," TCC Chancellor Dr. Leonardo de la Garza said. "When you are asked to give money back that you don't have, it becomes really difficult."

   Ann Hatch, the Dallas County Community College District director of media relations, said DCCCD is confronted with similar struggles.

   "It's already difficult for us to be asked to cut [our budget] for next year," she said, citing the widely speculated cut in the state appropriation caused by the nearly $10 billion state budget deficit. "But, it's more difficult to be asked to cut 7 percent when half of [our current] budget is gone."

   Officials from the Dallas college district have already cancelled some summer classes, frozen hiring for staff members and reduced travel expenses. Its chancellor, Bill Wenrich, told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram last week that he will recommend to trustees a $4 tuition raise per credit hour.

   De la Garza met with other members of the Texas Association of Community Colleges in Austin earlier last week to develop a unified response to the state and to decide on a list of options for all of its 50 college districts to choose from based on each district's needs.

   The association recommended cuts in summer classes, layoffs and increased tuition and local property taxes. These areas account for 77 percent of the total school budget for TCC. Other options focus on student services and suggest reducing counseling and advising services, as well as student activities.

   The schools may also consider discontinuing public use of college facilities and implementing further travel and purchase restrictions.

   In a letter to the governor and the state legislators, TACC cautioned that the state's directives may be harmful to the community colleges and voiced its disappointment after complying with the state's request to increase enrollment in the past few years.

   "Presumed flexibility in our budgets has all but vanished due to the stress caused by extraordinary enrollment growth," the letter said. "A reduction in funding cannot be accommodated without consideration of the efforts we have already taken to meet the state's goals of developing an educated workforce."

College Funding Procedures

   The governor's decision came at a time when community colleges need more money and resources to accommodate record-high enrollment increases, Lace said.

   TCC has maintained a consistent two-digit growth in its enrollment. Last year, enrollment increased an average of 16 percent. The college district also achieved a 10 percent increase in enrollment this semester over last spring, and growth is expected to continue.

   A community college typically benefits in enrollment during an economic hard time because of its affordable tuition rates and flexibility in class schedules compared to a four-year university.

   A growing student body works in favor of the college when it undergoes evaluation from the Legislative Budget Board, Lace said. State legislators will then vote for a final budget based on the recommendation of the board.

   With current lawmakers agonizing over the state's largest budget deficit, it is likely to minimize the school's chance of obtaining future state funding large enough to accommodate this year's increased enrollment.

   State legislators meet every two years to appropriate funding for all 50 community colleges in Texas. Funding for each college from the state then becomes part of the college's budget for a two-year period, called a biennium.

   TCC took home about $80 million from the state appropriation for the current biennium, which made up 23 percent of its budget through August of this year. The state funding fell $11 million short of the college's request, and de la Garza said school officials have had to find money from other sources to make up the difference. Funding for the next biennium may be even more scarce as lawmakers are getting ready in the current session to tackle the whopping $9.9 billion deficit.

Outlook for Future

   The looming prospect in state funding means more trips to Austin for de la Garza to plead for additional funding from the state legislators. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recently recommended a $25 million increase in funding, but the appropriation bill recommended by the legislature's budget board promises just roughly $12 million more.

   The House named its appropriations committee last week. TCC will have a chance to appeal for additional funding.

   Funding for education remains at the bottom of the to-go list, but there is no guarantee in the current state of economy, lawmakers said.

   "My sense is that at the end of the day," Rep. Todd Smith, R-Tarrant, said, "if there's going to be no increase in revenue, which is apparently the case, then there are going to be cuts in certain areas."

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