Dateline: September 13, 2007

State may undo veto of CC funds

Clarendon College officials are hopeful they will see their vetoed funding returned as early as next month, following a special committee hearing last Thursday in Austin.

CC Interim President Bill Auvenshine attended the meeting of the House Higher & Public Education Finance Select Committee and returned to Clarendon with great optimism that state leaders will soon restore $153.9 million to community colleges across the state.

In June, Gov. Rick Perry vetoed community college appropriations for employee and retiree health insurance in fiscal year 2008-2009. Clarendon College lost more than $461,000 in the cut, and CC Regents have been forced to raise taxes and student fees as well as take other budget actions to deal with the loss.

Auvenshine said testimony during last week’s hearing was extremely supportive for the state’s community colleges, especially that of Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Chairman Raymund Paredes.

“He gave the most positive support for community colleges from the coordinating board that I have heard in the last 40 years,” Auvenshine said. “He said that if we are to close the education gap in Texas, we must do it with the community colleges.”

Four community college presidents addressed the board. Auvenshine said Kilgore College President Bill Holda spoke for rural colleges like Clarendon when he told the committee that rural districts do not have the tax base to draw from to replace the lost state funding like bigger districts can.

Dallas County Community College Chancellor Wright Lassiter also gave strong testimony, Auvenshine said. It was pointed out that the largest undergraduate enrollment in Texas is not at the University of Texas or Texas A&M University but in the Dallas County Community College District.

The governor’s staff offered the committee an apology and an explanation that $120 million of the appropriation was never in question but that the governor felt he had to veto the funds in order to make a point about the other $34 million as it relates to proportionality in the way colleges are funded.

“I would say we’ll know (about the funds) by October 1,” Auvenshine said, “which is too late really because we already had to set the tax rate.”

If the state funds are restored, Auvenshine said CC could then go forward with maintenance projects that have been put on hold, equipment purchases that have been delayed, salary increases that have been stalled, and positions that have not been filled.