Colorado Community College Staff and Supporters –

I want to update you on what happened in the State Senate yesterday with the budget deliberations for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2009.

As you know, the Joint Budget Committee of the General Assembly initially cut higher education by $153 million, of which the community colleges would have had a $30 million cut. On April 1, the committee cut an additional $300 million from higher education, which resulted in another $61 million cut to community colleges which now totals $91 million in cuts for us for next year’s budget. This represents a 63% cut to the Community Colleges’ budgets. For those who have not seen it, I am attaching a fact sheet outlining the impact of these cuts to community colleges.

Last night, the Senate passed a bill that would allow the state to acquire $500 million from the reserves of Pinnacol Assurance – the entity that is required to provide workers’ compensation insurance to businesses if those businesses so choose and do not want or cannot get insurance from any other provider. The Senate then proposed to use $300 million of the $500 million to restore higher education funding. Thus, community colleges would go back to the $30 million cut initially proposed. Even though the higher education budget was restored for $300 million of the $453 million cut, we remain concerned because this funding is one-time funding and will not help in future years. We will be in the same situation one year from now of trying to find $300 million to support higher education because of the one-time nature of the funding. In addition, there are threats of lawsuits regarding this money. Thus, we are unsure if and when these funds would come to the state to restore higher education funding and we know that the funds will not continue to be available in FY 2010-11.

The budget bill was then preliminarily passed in the Senate with this proposal in it. The bill will face its final vote in the Senate on Monday and then be sent to the State House of Representatives for consideration. The bill must pass both the Senate and the House and then be signed by the Governor to become law.

At this point, it is hard to predict what will happen, but I want to continue to keep in touch with you. This is a very fluid process and subject to much change. Your e-mails and calls are very helpful. Your articulate descriptions of the importance of your colleges to your students and communities resonated with many legislators. They want to find a solution to this problem, but we are in tough economic times.

Please know how much we appreciate your help and how hard we are working to make sure that community colleges and all of higher education can continue to provide the opportunities the citizens of Colorado need. We will let you know when and if we need you to write to your state legislators and the Governor on this issue as it continues to work through the legislative process.

Thanks Again,

Nancy McCallin, Ph.D.
President,
Colorado Community College System

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that we have good news on the budget. Please see the Governor’s press release below in which he states that the $300 million cut to higher education is not an option as we would lose federal funds. As you recall, the budget bill, as introduced, would have cut overall higher education funding by $452 million. The final action on the budget bill in the Senate restored $300 million of the $452 million cut. Meanwhile, the Governor has indicated that he will devote federal stimulus funds to keep higher education from cuts in the current year and the next two fiscal years (FY 2009-10 and FY 2010-11) so that we will not see any cut in funds until FY 2011-12. If this plan holds up through the legislative process, this means that the significant negative impacts I outlined for you last week will not occur.

The budget bill (the Long Bill) is now going through the State House. Please know that the legislative process is fluid and there may be more changes. While the Senate plugged the $300 million hole in the budget, there are many other proposals floating around on how to plug the $300 million shortfall in the overall budget. The Community College System has not taken a policy position on how to cover the shortfall and I would ask that you not endorse or oppose any specific proposal. We will let you know if we need you to write or email your legislator in the future. At this time, the budget news is much better than one week ago.

Thank you for taking the time to provide input to your Senators. It truly made a difference!


Gov. Bill Ritter said today that massive funding cuts to higher education are not an option because Colorado would forfeit $760 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

In a letter to the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, Gov. Ritter said new guidelines make it clear that a previous proposal to cut higher education by $300 million would have dropped the state below the $555 million level of FY05-06.

Going below that level would make Colorado ineligible for all $760 million in State Stabilization Funds from the Recovery Act.

“Clearly, it would be counter-productive to cut higher education by $300 million only to lose the entire $760 million in Stabilization Funds,” Gov. Ritter said. “I will continue working with the JBC and the legislature to close the budget gap. This includes ongoing discussions with Pinnacol Assurance and exploring other ways to close the remaining $300 million budget gap.”

Gov. Ritter said the Stabilization Funds will be used to protect higher education funding. In fact, state funding for higher education can be maintained at theoriginal FY 2008-09 level of $706 million for the current 2008-09 fiscal year and for the next two fiscal years by utilizing State Stabilization Funding from the Recovery Act.

“Over the past few months, working in partnership with the JBC and legislative leadership from both parties, we have closed most of the $1.5 billion budget shortfall caused by the downturn,” Gov. Ritter said. “With just a few weeks remaining in the legislative session, we have more work to do to balance the budget, and we will balance this budget.

“As we make the same types of tough decisions that every family and every business is making in this downturn, we must protect long-term investments in education, job-creation and economic-development that will lead Colorado forward and position us for a strong recovery.”

Here is a breakdown of state funding for Colorado’s public colleges and universities in FY08-09:

Adams State College
$ 14,608,449
Mesa State College
$ 24,005,607
Metro. State College of Denver
$ 49,713,412
Western State College
$ 12,173,017
Colorado State University System
$ 146,891,512
Fort Lewis College
$ 12,736,330
University of Colorado System
$ 209,099,449
Colorado School of Mines
$ 23,237,386
University of Northern Colorado
$ 44,086,311
Community College System
$ 142,320,783
Area Vocational Schools
$ 11,202,546
Local District Junior Colleges
$ 15,890,257
$ 705,965,059

Chronology of Gov. Ritter’s Budget-Balancing Actions:

·Sept. 25:Implemented hiring freeze and construction delays.

·Nov. 1: Balanced budget request submitted to the JBC.

·Jan. 15: Revised balanced budget request for FY 08-09 submitted to JBC reflecting December revenue forecast.

·Jan. 27: Revised balanced budget request for FY 09-10 submitted to JBC reflecting December revenue forecast.

· Feb. 24: Revised balanced budget request for FY 08-09 and 09-10 submitted to JBC reflecting new caseload information.

· March 24: Federal Stabilization spending plan submitted to JBC for FY 08-09 through FY 10-11.

· April 10: Revised Federal Stabilization spending plan submitted to JBC for FY 08-09 through FY 10-11 reflecting new federal guidelines.