Even with a cut in state aid expected, the Barton Community College Board of Trustees won’t ask local property owners for more tax money in Fiscal Year 2015, Barton’s Dean of Administration Mark Dean said Thursday.
The trustees approved a budget for publication that calls for $8.9 million in property tax to be assessed for 2014. It is estimated the tax rate will be 33.105 mills, compared to last year’s actual tax rate of 32.798 mills. A public budget hearing will be held during the next board meeting, at 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7, in room F-30, on the lower level of the Fine Arts Building. That will also be the day the college and Great Bend Chamber of Commerce & Economic Development hold an open house of the new student house building, “Bluestem Hall,” at 5 p.m.
“The published budget request for tax dollars is basically the same amount as last year,” Dean noted. “Depending on what happens with the oil and gas exemption, the mill levy may increase slightly or may go back to the same as what we had last year. We won’t know what the results are for the exemption until this fall.”
Dean said the budget is based on assumptions that the college will grow by 3 percent and that the state will take back 2 percent of the financial aid it awards, which is called rescission. “We’re planning on a rescission in the state,” he said. It could range from 0 to 10 percent, with the higher figure costing the college about $900,000.
Board chairman Mike Johnson and Barton President Dr. Carl Heilman also commented on the loss of funding from the state. Heilman said the state is projecting a budget shortfall of more than $200 million for Fiscal Year 2017.
“Financial numbers for the state next year look very bleak,” Johnson said.
Dean also explained why the published budget for any year is always much higher than the previous year’s expenditures. The amounts represent the maximum amounts that can be spent. Next year, for example, the college expects to receive and spend an insurance settlement for the rebuilding of the dining hall that was destroyed by fire last April at its Camp Aldrich conference center.
In other business Thursday, the board approved the following new personnel at Fort Riley: James Love, instructor, Military Academic Services; and Michelle Koch, VA, LSEC, BSEP coordinator, part-time. The board also approved new personnel on the Barton County campus: Megan Barfield, Volunteer Coordinator of Central Kansas Connection, part-time; Kristan Connell, secretary, WTED; Ousmane Camara, assistant coach, men’s/women’s soccer; Anna Voss, assistant coach, softball; and Amanda Alliband, chemistry instructor.