Budget for community colleges follows governor’s recommendation

Lawmakers on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee have set a $27.7 million general-fund budget for the state’s three community colleges for next year, which, like the university budget, includes a boost for expected enrollment growth next year, but nothing to cover jumps in enrollment in the last few years for which the colleges got no additional state funding. The budget matches the governor’s recommendation, with the sole difference that funding for 2 percent raises is included; Gov. Butch Otter had called for separate bonuses, so his community college budget didn’t include the funding for raises. That brings the bottom line to a 20.5 percent increase in general funds over this year, up from the 19 percent in Otter’s budget, but nearly all the increase goes to the enrollment adjustment, $1.4 million in new building occupancy costs at CSI and CWI, and a $1 million “equity adjustment” for CWI to cover its exponential enrollment growth.