Dateline: August 30, 2007

CC regents approve $7.3 million budget for FY 2008

Clarendon College Regents approved a $7.3 million budget for fiscal year 2007-2008 when they met in regular session last Thursday.

College officials said no citizens showed up for the public hearing prior to Thursday’s meeting.

CC Interim President Bill Auvenshine said the college budget is made up of two parts – the instructional budget of $5,397,352 and the auxiliary budget of $1,917,888. The instructional budget is where the impact is felt of the governor’s veto of some college funding earlier this year.

“We have $338,000 in there for our employees’ health insurance,” Auvenshine said. “If you take that figure out, the actual increase in the instructional budget for this year is $79,030, which only amounts to a 0.01 percent increase from last year.”

Auvenshine said if efforts are successful to restore funding vetoed by the governor, the college can amend its budget and take care of things such as maintenance that has been deferred and purchases that have been delayed.

Regents are proposing setting the tax rate for the coming year at $0.2193 per $100 valuation. That’s up from the current rate of $0.2065 and would increase the tax on a $100,000 home by $12.80 per year.

Regents will hold a public hearing and adopt the tax rate next month.

In other college business, Auvenshine reported that a steering committee in Pampa is working to institute a maintenance and operations tax to help finance the CC - Pampa Center.

Gray County Commissioners will meet this week to consider calling an election on the tax, which by law would be limited to five cents per $100 valuation. Gray County Commissioners would review and set the tax rate annually, and Gray County would have no representation on the CC Board of Regents. All money raised by the tax would have to be spent in Gray County.

“Amarillo College has done this in Dumas, and Frank Phillips did this in Perryton,” Auvenshine said.

As president of Hill College, Auvenshine was a pioneer in the state in getting maintenance taxes approved to support satellite centers for that college.

CC officials think the tax could raise an estimated $600,000, which would free up money in the college’s budget for use on the main campus or for other college functions.

The maintenance and operation tax proposal has several steps to go through before it reaches Gray County voters. Auvenshine said the same tax is being considered to support the new CC – Childress Center.

In personnel issues, Regents accepted the resignation of CC – Pampa Center Associate Dean Dave Bradford. Ray Jaramillo will take Bradford’s place with the title of Dean of Administrative Services and Director of the Pampa Center.

Jaramillo will spend one day a week on the Clarendon campus to supervise business operations, and Annette Ferguson will return to CC as comptroller.

Regents also ratified the employment of Linda Rowland as mathematics instructor and Wendy Altman as enrollment services counselor. They also approved the appointment of the following personnel as dorm directors: Rusty Kennedy, Kaylann Titus, Matt Torrez, and Jeremy Vonner.