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TOP JOBS

By MEGAN MIDDLETON
Staff Writer

Tyler Junior College will offer a second public hearing on the 2008-09 proposed tax rate at 11 a.m. today.

The meeting will take place in the president's conference room in the White Administrative Services Center at the college.

No citizens spoke during the first public hearing on the tax rate last week.

The college is proposing to keep the tax rate at its current level - .127169 per $100 valuation. If it does, the rate will bring in to TJC more tax revenues - a little more than $769,000 - because of increases in property values.

With expected increases in the upcoming budget - from cost of living to a plan to boost adjunct (part-time) faculty salaries - that extra tax revenue is dwindling fast, officials have said.

TJC officials are still working on the budget, and figures are preliminary. The 2008-09 budget could be close to $57 million, up about 6.3 percent, or $3.4 million, from the current year's budget of about $53.6 million, officials said last week.

TJC President Dr. Mike Metke has said this has been a difficult budget to put together.

"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 possibly for spring, officials said.

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

A possible $57 million budget did not include money for raises for full-time faculty and staff members. But Metke said last week they are looking at what might be cut to make room for raises.

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

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.

The recent minimum wage increase is also affecting the budget by about $250,000, officials said. Increases in utilities and gas as well as deferred maintenance to electrical infrastructure and new sites TJC is opening in Lindale and Jacksonville are other impacts to the budget.

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.

Metke 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.

The TJC board is expected to vote on adopting the 2008-09 budget and setting the tax rate, which funds that budget, at a meeting Aug. 21.

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 6.2 percent. Those numbers do not include Van Zandt County taxable values.

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, 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 a 3.8 percent, increase.

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.