Proposal on 2-year colleges criticized

BOISE – Key legislators were sharply critical Wednesday of Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s plan to expand community college services statewide without charging property taxes in the newly served areas.

“The taxpayers in Kootenai County are going to pay twice. They’re going to pay state taxes to support the community college system throughout the state, plus they’re going to pay property taxes,” said Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint. “I believe that’s unfair.”

Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, ended a contentious budget hearing on Kempthorne’s proposal by telling the governor’s staff the idea needs lots more work on “both philosophically and financially where we’re going – if we’re going anywhere with this.”

David Lehman, policy director for Kempthorne, was unfazed by the hostile reception from the Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee.

“It’s the first time they’ve had a chance to look at everything the governor is proposing,” Lehman said. “Naturally they’re going to have questions. We’re proposing something that people have been talking about for years.”

Kempthorne wants to set aside $5 million in next year’s state budget – $3.5 million as a permanent, annual appropriation, and $1.5 million for onetime start-up costs – to expand community college services to unserved areas.

Idaho has two community colleges: North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene and the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. Each has its own locally elected board of trustees, and taxpayers in each area help fund the colleges. In Kootenai County, the owner of a $150,000 home pays about $71 a year for NIC. Jerome and Twin Falls county residents directly support CSI.

The state’s biggest population center – the Boise-Nampa area – has no community college, and area business and education leaders want one. An Oregon community college with a branch in Caldwell serves 700 Idaho students and is considering a Boise branch.

In eastern Idaho, voters twice rejected plans to charge property taxes to start a community college. They got Eastern Idaho Technical College, a fully state-funded, two-year vocational school, despite the rejections.

Rep. Ann Rydalch, R-Idaho Falls, is working on her own bill to set up a statewide community college system funded with a portion of the state sales tax, eliminating the local property taxes for NIC and CSI. “That would be a relief off the property tax for those people,” Rydalch said.

Under her plan, Eastern Idaho Technical would be upgraded to a community college, and Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston also would take on a full community college role. A new community college would be added in southwestern Idaho for a total of five statewide. “I want to make community colleges accessible and affordable,” she said.

Rydalch’s plan, which would cost millions, would keep local advisory boards to preserve local control at the colleges. But the two current community colleges have elected boards that oversee them, giving them considerably more local authority.

Lehman said the governor’s plan envisions new community colleges to “organically grow … around the state,” starting with classes offered in existing school classrooms, corporate meeting rooms and elsewhere.

“Local communities are going to have to make a decision on how extensive they want the community college offerings to be,” Lehman said.

He didn’t rule out future property tax levies to support the new community colleges, but the governor’s plan doesn’t require those to get the initial funding. Lehman said that as community college efforts grow, they could evolve into property tax-funded institutions like NIC and CSI. “That’s been the tradition,” he said. “It’s clearly the process that community colleges have followed in the past as they’ve developed over time.”

North Idaho College’s plans to open a satellite campus in Bonners Ferry would qualify for the new program, administration officials said. NIC has secured a building there in a former strip mall with help from the county, the Kootenai Tribe and the Panhandle Area Council and hopes to begin offering courses next fall.

“This one-time money is exactly what it takes to get it started,” NIC President Michael Burke told the joint committee.

Burke, who made his budget presentation to the panel Wednesday, asked for $250,000 from the state to help kick off the Bonners Ferry classroom center, but Kempthorne didn’t recommend funding that.

After the budget hearing, Burke said NIC will go ahead with its Bonners Ferry plans, but the college would be able to do more for Boundary County residents if it gets the additional funding.

“We cannot bring high-tech professional technical programs, we cannot bring lab science programs up there without some additional help,” he said.

NIC also hopes to set up a similar outreach center in Benewah County. “That’s the county we’re not serving, and we want to go down there,” Burke said.