Funding cut may mean hike in WCJC tuition
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

Wharton County Junior College students could soon find the cost of their education increasing dramatically unless efforts at the state's highest levels can restore funding for college employee health benefits.

WCJC President Betty McCrohan said the local community college needs to hear something close to a guarantee from the state or students could expect to see a $10 per hour across the board increase in tuition fees starting in the spring.

Such an increase would bump the cost for in-district students to $54 per semester hour in tuition and fees and out-of-district fees from $90 to $100 per hour.

Earlier this year, Gov. Rick Perry used a line-item veto to eliminate group insurance contributions to community colleges from the fiscal year 2009 funding. Across the state, that eliminated $154 million from the budget and meant a reduction of $1.8 million in state contributions to WCJC.

McCrohan said Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Texas Speaker of the House Tom Craddick have announced they are working to restore the funding and she is cautiously optimistic they will be able to solve the problem.

"We've come a long way since the veto, but it is not a simple fix because the funds aren't in the budget to be re-appropriated," McCrohan said. "And that's why we have to consider a tuition increase starting with the Spring semester because we can't afford to take the risk. We really need solid assurances they can do something. Community colleges would like to know by Oct. 15 with a drop dead date of Oct. 30 because that's when we start setting our budgets."

McCrohan said the concept of proportionality - that percentage of what insurance cost the state covers - led to the initial veto. Employees working on the grounds and buildings or who are funded through a grant are not eligible for state funded insurance while most other employees are eligible. She said staff recommendations made to the governor questions the eligibility of some qualifying staff, leading to the veto.

The biggest challenge to restoring the funding is finding the money in a budget that has been set.

"The money is not there to be re-appropriated," she said. "The state can decide to move it from other areas or opt not to pay certain bills until the start of the new budget year and move that money. Because of those options, we would need some solid assurances before we decide on the tuition increase."

McCrohan said the funding problems are due in part to declining state funding at a time it is also demanding community college's increase enrollment. In 1980, the state reached a percentage peak in community college funding of almost 70 percent. Since that time, the funding has declined to 30 percent in 2005. At the same the state funding is declining, community colleges are being asked to increase enrollment from a 2005 figure of 575,712 to 708,770 by 2010 and 867,670 by 2015.

"Even if we went with the maximum allowable tax rate increase (of 7.99 percent before rollback) we would generate less than $300,000 in new revenue," she said.

"And it is against our fiscal policy to use local taxes to support instruction anyway. The community has made a huge investment in the college and the tax payers should not be expected to cover instructional costs. Those are paid out of state funding and tuition."

McCrohan added that using funding reserves is also not an option the college's board of directors is willing to consider at this time.

"Depleting our reserves would be financially irresponsible to our tax paying constituents," she said. "Hurricanes Katrina and Rita showed the importance of have those reserves if a natural disaster happened here."