NCCC Wants a Tuition Hike » Local News » Tonawanda News

— — A request for the county to increase its annual subsidy to Niagara County Community College didn’t go over well with lawmakers Tuesday. The proposed 2011-12 budget for NCCC, $48.7 million, would make up state aid and other cash losses by raising tuition 4 percent, getting Niagara County to increase its aid for the first time in five years, and by dipping more deeply into the general fund balance. The size of the school’s rainy day account, $7.5 million, is a sticking point for influential lawmakers including Administration Committee Chairman Keith McNall and Legislature Chairman Bill Ross. The county raises its subsidy to the college, currently $8.9 million, by taxing property owners, so increasing the subsidy could mean raising the county tax rate. “It’s not happening, I already told (NCCC President James) Klyczek that. not when they’ve got that much” fund balance, Ross said. “In these economic times, it would be most challenging” to hit up county taxpayers for more, McNall said. The college is asking for $355,000 or 4 percent more from the county in 2011-12, for a total subsidy of $9.2 million. by law, the county cannot decrease the subsidy from one year to the next but it is never required to increase the grant. The proposed budget shows a continuation of recent trends hitting public institutions: Higher fixed costs including employee benefits and utilities against decreasing income. State aid to the college is being cut almost 10 percent or $1.2 million. The “chargeback” tuition rate applied to New York residents who are not Niagara County residents will be reduced as well; the college expects to pull in $400,000 less from non-local students next year. Meanwhile, projected employee pension rate increases will cost the college another $261,000, for a projected 2011-12 expense of $2.5 million; and employee hospital and medical insurance will cost $226,000 more, for total estimated health spending of $9.7 million. The increase in “contractual” expenses, meaning office/operating costs  like office supplies, postage, utilities, fuel, insurances and the like, is held to $155,000, for a fiscal year total of $9 million, by scaling back spending on equipment, operations and maintenance and miscellaneous line cuts in the category. NCCC will be looking for the state’s approval to raise student tuition 4 percent next year, to $3,624 per year from $3,480, and raise student fees by “similar” percentages, according to a budget narrative given to lawmakers. Getting the OK to do so would help the college raise another $1.1 million. The flip side, according to Klyczek, is the almost $150 increase in tuition could be the thing that forces some students to drop out of, or just not enroll in, school. “The board’s position, at first, was: No increase, to maintain accessibility,” he said, but given that it is also asking the county for more, and would draw $750,000 more from fund balance on top, the tuition increase was not avoidable. “We’re still the most affordable option out there,” Klyczek said. The county Legislature will hold a public hearing on the proposed budget, specifically the county subsidy line item, at 6:30 p.m. June 21 at the courthouse in Lockport. Lawmakers rejected the school’s request for a 3 percent county aid hike in 2010-11. The subsidy has been $8.9 million a year since the 2007-08 school year.

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