Community College Budget Update--Part X

June 23, 2000

Community College Budget Update-Part X
Conference Committee Wraps up Community College Budget-
State Budget on It's Way to the Governor

With some last minute scrambling to appease a Governor less than pleased with some of its prior actions, the Budget Conference Committee closed out its education actions with days to spare before the June 15 constitutional deadline for legislative passage of the State Budget. Shortly thereafter, the State Senate approved the State Budget with the necessary two-thirds vote. However, the Assembly did not pass its version of the State Budget until seven days later. Approval in the Assembly came after Democrats and Republicans agreed on a tax cut package that protected anticipated reductions in vehicle license fees. Governor Davis has indicated he would veto the license fee cut unless lawmakers added $100 million in tax credits benefiting high-tech companies. It is anticipated that the reduction in VLF could drain nearly $3.6 million from state coffers.

Numerous details, both small and large that were not addressed in the main Budget Bill are included in trailer bills.

Perhaps the biggest surprise for the community colleges occurred during the last hours of the Conference Committee when Department of Finance representatives told the conferees that the Governor would consider supporting $50 million above his May Revise ($459 million) for community colleges.

Conference Committee Augments Community College Budget

During the final hours of the Conference Committee the conferees increased the community budget by $49 million bringing the total committee action to $586 million (see Attachment A).

Conference Committee augmentations include the following:

$50 million for one-time instructional equipment and scheduled maintenance block grant
$34 million to provide an additional 1% for Cost-of-Living-Allowance (COLA)-bringing the total COLA to 4.17% ($150,176,000)
$10 million for Economic Development
$5 million to augment part-time faculty office hours program (2 to 1 matching requirement is proposed)

Department of Finance representatives told the conferees that the Administration would not likely support community college augmentations that totaled more than $509 million (May Revise-$459 million, plus $50 million). If this is an accurate account of the Governor's position, the community college budget could be faced with more than $75 million in vetoes.

In spite of the usual budget squabbling between Democrats and Republicans it appears that for the second year in a row, we will have a State Budget signed by the Governor according to the Constitutional required timeline of June 30.

--Arnold Bray