Community Colleges Get 11 Percent Raise

Legislative budget writers gave Idaho’s two community colleges an 11 percent increase in funding in the budget they approved Friday.

The budget, for North Idaho College and the College of Southern Idaho, totals $13.6 million. It’s about $67,000 higher than the governor’s recommended budget, which would have been a 10.5 percent increase.

But the state provides only about a third of NIC’s funding. The rest comes mostly from property taxes, and tuition and fees.

Rep. Don Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene, told the budget committee, “There’s certainly a wave up north on this property tax issue.”

“I think many of us feel that we have a community college in our town, it’s fair that we pay a property tax for it. What’s maybe not fair is that the other schools don’t.”

All the other colleges and universities across the state, other than CSI and NIC, are completely state-funded and levy no property taxes.

Last year, Gov. Phil Batt persuaded legislators to replace $500,000 in property tax funding for NIC with state funds, as a first step toward decreasing reliance on property taxes. An equal break went to CSI. But the governor didn’t propose another step this year, and neither did anyone on the budget committee.

, DataTimes