Exactly one week ago, the Assembly Budget Committee gathered to hear a new proposition that the Senate Republicans proposed for the state budget plan.
While the budget for this year is still undecided, this most recently proposed plan would cut approximately $350 million from community colleges across the state. With the budget still undecided, however, the Kern Community College District and other districts in California are receiving no money from the state. However, the KCCD saw this coming, so they planned a reserve of money that could be attained.
“The district is utilizing our reserves, and we have frozen expenditures of capital on items such as computers. Also, we slowed down hiring. We don’t know when we will receive the final budget, but we have enough levels of cash to meet our needs through October,” said KCCD’s Chief Financial Officer Tom Burke.
In order to maintain the same allocations among the three KCCD colleges as last year, Burke said that about $2 million was spent. The district may have its reserve to rely on. However, BC President Greg Chamberlain?has other things on his mind.
“The enrollment this fall is very high, and there is a cap on the number of students that the state will give us funding for. I am concerned that we might be over that cap and with being able to offer students enough classes in the spring and the summer.”
In a letter to Speaker Bass, Sen. Perata and Sen. Cogdill, Governer Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote, “It is irresponsible not to have a budget more than two months into the fiscal year and 80 days past the legislative deadline.This delay in the legislature could cost California more than a billion dollars because we are losing another month of budget solutions.”