Budget Advisory Committee

Senate Chambers

2:30 p.m.

1. Approval of Minutes: October 23, 2001; November 16, 2001; December 14, 2001
2. 2002-03 Governor's Budget Recommendation
3. Budget Planning Calendar

BUDGET ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Tuesday, January 22, 2002

Senate Chambers, 2:30 p.m.

The meeting was called to order by Ron Root (Co-Chair).

Members present: Rich Abrahams, Barbara Croteau (Co-Chair), Andrew Dolcini, Bob Flores, Micca Gray, Joe Morello, Tatjana Omrcen, Bonnie Pearson, Jamey Ransford, Ed Sikes.

Also present: Bea Griffiths, Jennifer Mann, Steve Olson, Chuck Robbins.

Members/staff absent: Kathleen Bradbury, Xuan Ho, Ezbon Jen, Omar Medina, Deborah Sweitzer, Sandi Tassano.

Staff to the Committee: E. Cichocki, R. Kyle, K. Lewis, L. Royer.

The Agenda was amended and re-ordered to include new discussion item: Non-Resident Tuition 2002-03

1. Approval of Minutes: October 23, 2001; November 16, 2001; December 14, 2001

Addition to December 14, 2001 Minutes, Item 1, Student Wage Proposal, end of paragraph 2: "Any changes and/or recommendations to Student Wage will be directed to the Student Government for review." December 14, 2001 minutes approved with addition. October 23, 2001 and November 16, 2001 minutes approved as presented.

2. Non Resident Tuition 2002-03

Lamont Royer provided a Draft of the proposal that will be presented at the February board meeting and explained the five options for establishing the non-resident tuition fee. Three of these options are available to the district, and historically the district has established the fee based on the lowest contiguous district. This year Mendocino-Lake's rate of $155 is the lowest fee of the contiguous districts and will be the district's recommendation. The district retains 100% of these fees. Even though the fees have steadily risen, out-of-state enrollment has been growing. Micca Gray made a motion (seconded by Barbara Croteau) to accept the draft proposal with the addition of language indicating that both student government and BAC voted to support the recommendation.

3. 2002-03 Governor's Budget Recommendation

Community colleges continue to be underfunded under the Proposition 98 guarantee. Ron Root will bring this issue forward to BAC as part of a position paper later in the spring. While the Governor's community college budget proposal increased by 1.7% overall, increases for the most part are in growth and general apportionment funding: 2.15% COLA and 3% in enrollment growth. SRJC is reporting for P-1 purposes 4.5% growth for this year. The funded cap is 4.59%. It appears that SRJC may grow to the funding cap this year. If the recession continues, it is possible that growth could continue next year as well. However, the funded growth cap for next year is only 2.16%. The areas of scheduled maintenance and instructional equipment have been substantially increased. This is one-time funding that restores these items to their previous levels. There is a 50% local funding match requirement for scheduled maintenance, and a 3-to-1 local match for instructional equipment.

However, the community college budget proposal also contains $131 million in total budget reductions. Ron Root invited program managers to share with BAC the impact of the governor's proposed budget cut on their areas of responsibility.

Jamey Ransford said it appears that only childcare funding remains in the CalWorks allocation. Funding for job training programs, employment services to students, student wages, and curriculum development has been eliminated. A number of CalWorks positions are fully or partially funding by the district. The County of Sonoma also provides funding in the amount of $220,000. If funding is not restored, a smaller version of the present program will result.

Jennifer Mann outlined some of the services provided by Faculty and Staff Development funding, such as professional development for all employee groups, support for conference presenters and attendees, fee reimbursement and material costs for job-enhancement courses at SRJC, new employee orientations for all employee groups, and administrative support for grant application process. The total funding for the program from all sources is about $225,000.00 and the proposed cut is about half that amount. Bea Griffiths reported that a statewide representative group for staff development is working on plans to present a proposal to the governor to restore faculty and staff development funding.

Chuck Robbins stated that funding for Economic Development (SBDC and Contract Education programs at SRJC) is a combination of federal, state and community college sources and a local cash match; the cuts are less than one-third of the total budget for this area. At this time federal and state funding has been renewed for the calendar year. Community college funding does not present too great exposure since this is the second year of a two-year contract pending, of course, the availability of funding. In addition, there are a lot of industry partnerships supporting these programs. Chuck Robbins is cautiously optimistic that the programs will continue.

Will Baty and Bill Turner will be invited to the February 8 meeting to address budget cuts affecting the areas of Telecommunications & Technology and Matriculation respectively.

Ron Root explained the methodology agreed upon during negotiations for determining faculty salary schedule increases in response to Micca Gray's inquiry.

In summary, Ron Root noted that the legislative analyst's office is suggesting that the governor's budget is too optimistic by $2 billion. The proposal may also be $935 million short of the Proposition 98 guarantee. If the legislature adds Proposition 98 funding, it would help the community colleges but cuts would have to come from somewhere else.

4. Budget Planning Calendar

Eileen Cichocki distributed a copy of the 2002/03 Budget Calendar detailing the budget process and projected completion dates.

Meeting adjourned: 3:35 p.m.