Schools

Midyear Cuts Loom For Citrus College

With projected revenues falling drastically short, Citrus College administrators come to terms with severe cuts ahead.

With anticipated state budget revenues well below their projected numbers, is bracing itself for severe midyear cuts that would raise enrollment fees and slash student funding.

The numbers presented during Monday’s Budget Forum with Citrus faculty and staff were sobering, presenting a turn of events that has marked the rollercoaster ride of state funding to higher education.

“Money keeps getting shifted—we get our apportionment, we get our revenue, but that revenue will not come to us in terms of cash flow in the year that it’s granted to us,” said Citrus College Superintendent Dr. Geraldine Perri. “There’s more deferred payments and that for us is something we always have to monitor.”

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In January, state numbers projected cuts to community colleges at $400 million to $800 million. But in May, the state produced $11.8 billion more in revenue, of which $4 billion was based on projected personal income tax revenue.

The state promised no midyear cuts to community colleges with a major caveat – if $3 billion of the $4 billion in tax revenue materializes.

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It is a prospect that college administrators are not depending on.

State Controller John Chiang said revenues were $539 billion below projected numbers.

If the state sees less than $2 billion in projected revenues, higher education can see an astounding $102 million in midyear cuts.

The cuts will be a major blow to Citrus College’s already lean budget, which has dropped from $60 million in 2010 – 2012 to over $55 million in 2011-2012, a $4 million deficit from its $58 million expenditure budget.

While college administrators have strived to keep cuts away from the progress of their students’ academic careers, the cuts are becoming harder to ignore. The college went from 11,618 Full-Time Equivalent Students in 2010-2011 to 10,896 in funding for 2011-2012.

Enrollment fees—which have already increased $10 to $36 a unit – may hike again to $46 a unit in 2012.

Citrus is offering 920 class sections this fall, compared to last fall’s 1,022, according to the President’s Office. Spring class offerings will be down by 138.

But the majority of the college’s expenditures remains to be “employee-driven.”

Citrus College has contended with increases to employee benefits, from a 13 percent increase in Kaiser health benefits to 8 percent in Blue Shield benefits. The college also now pays 1.6 percent for every $100 of payroll in unemployment benefits.

According to Carol Horton, vice president of administrative and fiscal services, statutory staff benefits and PERS costs increased only slightly from the year before.

“It’s just extraordinary, the impact [of these expenses] and they just keep going up,” said Horton.


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