Nic Pitches Budget Legislators Say It’S Unlikely College Will Receive Extra Money

North Idaho College needs to pay its instructors better and it needs new technology, President Michael Burke told the Legislature’s budget committee Thursday.

Committee members, while praising Burke on his first budget pitch, indicated it was unlikely the college would get the extra funds.

“They had an 11 percent (budget) increase last year,” Rep. Don Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene, said. Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s budget recommendation this year calls for a 5.6 percent hike, which Pischner noted is higher than state’s overall expected revenue growth.

“I think the committee understands the needs of community colleges and understands their contributions,” Pischner said.

Burke thanked the committee for giving NIC “an excellent year” last time around. “It was a very good shot in the arm. We’re still smiling about that,” he said.

He painted a picture of a college that’s growing in every area - not just in forcredit students, but also in adult basic education, GED programs, workforce training, and other programs the college administers, such as Head Start.

This year, NIC has 11,742 students. Forcredit enrollment is up 3.5 percent, and workforce training is up 10 percent. The number of students working toward their GED, a high school equivalency degree, is up 16 percent.

Ninety percent of NIC’s students are from Idaho, and 85 percent are from the Panhandle, Burke said. That fits in with “our mission to stay close to home and meet our local community needs.”

North Idaho includes remote areas, he said. Distance learning - courses offered over the Internet or other high-tech connections - can allow the college to reach people without long commutes.

Already, NIC has network links to 10 high schools, five hospitals and all Idaho colleges and universities, Burke said.

He said the college needs additional technology to improve and expand its distance learning programs. The budget request included $150,600 to match various grants for that purpose.

“Technology doesn’t teach itself,” Burke said. “We’re going to have to hire the best and brightest faculty we can find, and retain them.”

The college requested $155,000 to bring up faculty salaries, citing figures showing NIC’s pay rates are 6 percent below other Inland Northwest employers and like-sized colleges across the region.

Pischner predicted the college will get funding to match the governor’s recommendation, which skipped over both those additions.

Burke didn’t mention property taxes in his pitch, but several committee members brought them up.

Sen. Marguerite McLaughlin, D-Orofino, said if local autonomy can be kept, the state should look at reducing the community colleges’ reliance on property taxes.

Only NIC and the College of Southern Idaho collect property taxes to fund a portion of their budgets. All other state colleges and universities receive only state tax funds.

Said McLaughlin, “I think we need to sit down and try to figure out what we can do with state funding.”

The situation means that residents of Kootenai County and the two southern Idaho counties where CSI is located have an additional property tax expense that no one else in the state has.

But Burke said, “The overwhelming majority of our residents pay less than $200 a year.”

NIC is collecting 75 percent of the property tax it’s allowed by law to collect. CSI is at 88 percent.

In 1997, the Legislature decided to replace $1 million of the community colleges’ property tax funding with state funds, with half the tax relief going to each college’s taxpayers. NIC now gets about $5.6 million of its $18 million budget from local property tax.

Pischner suggested turning the issue around. “My thinking is we as a Legislature are funding these state colleges and universities to expand. No wonder we can’t do anything to reduce the property taxes for the community colleges.

“Maybe those people that are seeking expansion of state colleges in their area should entertain paying a little property tax.”

“It seems fair to me,” he said.

This sidebar appeared with the story: BY THE NUMBERS $150,600 to match grants for distance learning programs. $155,000 for faculty salaries, now 6 percent below area colleges. Enrollment, at 11,742 students, is growing: For-credit enrollment up 3.5 percent. Workforce training up 10 percent.