Tyler

By MEGAN MIDDLETON
Staff Writer

Tyler Junior College will offer a public hearing on its proposed tax rate at 11 a.m. Thursday in the board room of the White Administrative Services Center at TJC.

The college is proposing a tax rate of .127169 per $100 of taxable value, the same as its current tax rate. Keeping the tax rate the same will bring in to TJC more tax revenues — a little more than $769,000 — because of increases in property values.

But TJC officials say with the increase in the cost of living, minimum wage increases and its commitment to increase adjunct faculty salaries for the first time in 25 years, that extra revenue is quickly becoming spoken for and is making the budget preparation process difficult.

“We have the same state funding we had last year. We made a commitment not to go up on our tax rate. We still want to keep tuition and fees as low as we can, but we’re looking at 5 percent inflation, and those costs just add up and add up,” said Sarah Van Cleef, director of business services at TJC. “It’s really taken us to task on balancing.”

According to TJC, the taxable values for the college in 2007-08 were about $8.1 billion, while the taxable values for 2008-09 will be about $8.6 billion, an increase of about $500 million, or about a 6.2-percent increase. Those numbers do not include Van Zandt County taxable values.

Property tax revenues for TJC for 2007-08 were about $12.261 million, which includes delinquent taxes and penalties. That number is based on about a 96 percent collection rate. About $13.138 million is projected for 2008-09, an expected increase of $877,000, or 7.2 percent.

The average home value in the TJC district in 2007 was $122,525, according to the Smith County Appraisal District. The average home value for 2008 is $127,285. That’s an increase of $4,760 or about 3.9 percent.

If the TJC board sets the tax rate the same, taxes on an average home in the TJC district would be about $162, as opposed to last year’s, which were about $156. That’s a $6, or about 3.8 percent increase.

TJC officials are still hammering out the budget, and figures are preliminary. But the budget for 2008-09 could be about $57 million, up about 6.3 percent, or about $3.4 million, from the current year’s budget of about $53.6 million, officials said.

The extra money from property value increases will not be enough to cover all the increases the college is anticipating.

“We’re really struggling,” TJC President Dr. Mike Metke said. “We’re looking at different scenarios.”

There may be some services and programs the college can scale back on and there’s some that it cannot, Metke said.

“This is a really difficult budget to put together,” he said, noting the cost of living is going up 5 percent. “Part of the mission of community college is to be affordable, close to home, to provide a pathway to a better life, higher education … so we don’t want to raise tuition and fees, but we’re going to be forced to look at increasing tuition and fees just to make it next year.”

The preliminary budget does factor in a potential tuition and fee increase, which could be about $3 more per semester credit hour for in-district students and about a $6 increase per semester credit hour for out-of-district students.

Any possible tuition increase would not be for the fall semester, but rather for possibly spring, officials said.

Metke said this is just one of the options they will discuss with the board. It will be up to the board of trustees to approve the budget.

“We’re trying to keep the door open and be affordable and yet not go backwards in programs and services,” he said. “If the economy slows down, people typically come back to college for new skills and to be competitive in the job markets, and we want to be here for them.”

A possible $57 million budget at this point does not include money for raises for all faculty and staff members.

“Their costs are going up too, just like everybody’s,” Metke said, noting that they are looking at what might be cut to make room for those raises. “We’ve got such committed employees and fine people here, and it’s just not right to say that we can’t do anything.”

He said one of the scenarios is to look at giving raises during mid-school year, after fall enrollment is known.

When asked why the college was not increasing its tax rate, Metke said a number of schools are.

“Our board feels very strongly about being fiscally responsible and doing everything we can not to raise taxes,” he said. “That’s why they are holding (the tax rate) … and made the commitment not to go above the current level. But it’s making it very hard for us.”

One of the expected impacts to the 2008-09 budget are increases to the adjunct faculty’s salaries. About a half a million dollars is expected to go to increasing adjunct pay by about $150 for a three-credit lecture course.

Metke said the pay rate for adjunct faculty has not changed in 25 years.

“We’re way below the prevailing rate other colleges pay or UT Tyler,” Metke said. “We can’t attract and retain teachers … Something had to be done. And we’re still not where we need to be.”

“Over the long run, it’s actually a cost-saving move because as we can use more adjunct faculty, the cost of instruction can go down a little,” he said.

The recent minimum wage increase is also affecting the budget by about $250,000 on top of what the increase was last year, officials said.

“Between the adjunct faculty and the minimum wage increase, it all but eats up the valuation increase,” Mrs. Van Cleef said.

Utilities are also increasing about 5 to 10 percent, Mrs. Van Cleef said, noting gas is in line with that.

Metke also pointed out some deferred maintenance to electrical infrastructure that needs to be addressed. About $300,000 is needed to replace obsolete, underground electrical utilities that were designed for a 20-year life span when installed in the 1950s, he said.

Some of the new initiatives, such as TJC’s center in Lindale and its new school of nursing in Jacksonville, will generate new state monies in the next biennium, but the college has to increase its budget now for those new sites.

TJC will not see new money from the state for new enrollment at those locations until August 2009. About $240,000 is being added to TJC’s budget because of those new initiatives.

But Metke noted, “If it weren’t for the partners — Trinity Mother Frances, ETMC, Jacksonville EDC, Lindale EDC — we absolutely could not have begun those new sites … Even though we’re putting money in, our part is probably less than a third of the total cost.”

The college will receive about $16.5 million in state revenue for 2008-09, making up about 29 percent of its budget. That’s the same amount of state revenue it received this year.

He said the increase the college will see in its budget because of the increased property values will be about 1.4 percent, although cost of living is going up about 5 percent and state money is staying the same.

“We are looking at all kinds of scenarios,” he said of the budget and what will be included in it.

“Just like people at home have difficult choices in their family budgets with all the costs going up… there are difficult choices that we need to make. We want to make the best choices for the taxpayers here and provide the highest level of service we can — and it’s a balance.”

A second public hearing on the tax rate will take place at 11 a.m. Aug. 7 in the board room of the White Administrative Services Center at TJC. The board will vote to adopt the budget and set the tax rate at a meeting Aug. 21.

Updated Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 4:39 p.m. CDT