2008 Woodie Awards
Budget cuts hit $2 million
Calworks, EOPS, disabled program to suffer 10.9 percent loss.
Steven Piper
Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: News
LBCC is facing a $2.3 million reduction in its budget for 2007-08 and a college official said, "Tough, tough times are ahead for next year."
Vice President Anne-Marie Gabel explained the cuts Monday, April 21.
The cuts can be attributed to the fact that Orange and Sonoma counties overestimated the amount of property tax revenue that would be generated on behalf on Community College Districts, Gabel said. Their error consisted of $74 million that should have been collected from the property tax revenue.
The community college system is responsible for the $74 million deficit because the state budget is put together from the property tax estimates that the counties provide.
Since the amount of revenue generated from the property taxes has fallen short of initial estimates, the state has reduced the amount of apportionment given to school districts to make up the deficit.
To reduce the amount of apportionment, a deficit factor of 1.52 percent has been placed on LBCC's share of the money.
Gabel, of the Budget Advisory Committee, said LBCC, "will weather the reduction utilizing the reserves that the district had successfully built up over the past couple of years." Gabel referred to the built up funds as the district's "savings account."
Gabel also said the committee is, at this point, not suggesting any layoffs to the Board of Trustees.
When talking about the committee's plans for handling the budget crisis, Gabel said the goal is to, "keep the cuts as far away from the students as possible." At the same time, Gabel advised that the students should not expect a lot and that, "there will be less money to provide to the students." However, Gabel did say course offerings will remain the same despite the cuts and that she hopes the student body will grow by 1 percent next year.
ASB Chief Executive Officer John Kindred said Wednesday, April 23, "How can you expect to grow when you don't have the resources to grow." Kindred said the student government did not have any planned response to the cuts because of the ASB elections April 22-24. Any action from the ASB "depends on the elections and who comes back," Kindred said.
Vice President Anne-Marie Gabel explained the cuts Monday, April 21.
The cuts can be attributed to the fact that Orange and Sonoma counties overestimated the amount of property tax revenue that would be generated on behalf on Community College Districts, Gabel said. Their error consisted of $74 million that should have been collected from the property tax revenue.
The community college system is responsible for the $74 million deficit because the state budget is put together from the property tax estimates that the counties provide.
Since the amount of revenue generated from the property taxes has fallen short of initial estimates, the state has reduced the amount of apportionment given to school districts to make up the deficit.
To reduce the amount of apportionment, a deficit factor of 1.52 percent has been placed on LBCC's share of the money.
Gabel, of the Budget Advisory Committee, said LBCC, "will weather the reduction utilizing the reserves that the district had successfully built up over the past couple of years." Gabel referred to the built up funds as the district's "savings account."
Gabel also said the committee is, at this point, not suggesting any layoffs to the Board of Trustees.
When talking about the committee's plans for handling the budget crisis, Gabel said the goal is to, "keep the cuts as far away from the students as possible." At the same time, Gabel advised that the students should not expect a lot and that, "there will be less money to provide to the students." However, Gabel did say course offerings will remain the same despite the cuts and that she hopes the student body will grow by 1 percent next year.
ASB Chief Executive Officer John Kindred said Wednesday, April 23, "How can you expect to grow when you don't have the resources to grow." Kindred said the student government did not have any planned response to the cuts because of the ASB elections April 22-24. Any action from the ASB "depends on the elections and who comes back," Kindred said.
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