No Tax Increase For Nic Trustees Vote To Keep Assessment As Is, But Increase Student Tuition And Fees

North Idaho College trustees held the line on taxes as they voted unanimously Wednesday night to approve next year’s budget.

“It’s fiscal accountability,” board Chairwoman Barbara Chamberlain said. “It’s easier to ask for more money than to be sure of how it is being spent.”

That doesn’t mean the college will be collecting less money from taxpayers - the actual amount of taxes will rise by $145,000, or 2.8 percent. But that money will come from taxes on new construction. The rate at which people are taxed will remain the same - about $1 per $1,000 of assessed value.

That sets NIC apart from some other taxing entities, such as Kootenai County, which raised its taxing rate by 12 percent in its current budget. Coeur d’Alene city taxes went up by 3 percent.

The city and county began their fiscal years in October. NIC’s starts July 1.

“We’re taking less money now than we did in 1994-1995,” said Steve Schenk, NIC’s vice president for college relations and development. The taxing rate has gone down or stayed the same every year since 1994, Schenk said.

When NIC administrators brought a budget with a $169,000 shortfall before the board last month, trustees told them to make cuts and bring it back.

So the administration made cuts. Among them were $20,000 from the legal services budget, $15,000 from a fund that gives Washington residents tuition breaks and $25,000 worth of small remodeling projects.

“It’s spread all over the place,” said Rolly Jurgens, the college’s vice president of administration. “Those weren’t done painlessly, but it’s not going to hamper our operations.”

This year’s $23.8 million budget is 7.7 percent higher than last year’s $22.1 million budget. That is due primarily to three factors: an 11 percent increase in tuition and fees, which NIC’s student body president opposed, an 11 percent increase in money received from the state and the 2.8 percent increase in county tax revenue due to growth.

The additional $1.7 million will be used for increases in salaries, employee benefits and maintenance and operations. The money allocated to salaries went up by 4.3 percent. The college also will add 7.5 additional faculty and staff positions next year to handle burgeoning enrollment. Last fall saw a record enrollment increase of 12 percent.

The college also had to budget an additional $153,029 to make payments on recently acquired land.