Clarendon College Regents approved a $9.3 million budget during a called meeting Monday afternoon and managed to avoid making major cuts despite a six-figure decline in tax revenue in Gray County.
CC President Robert Riza said the college expects to lose about $161,000 in revenue from the neighboring county due to the drop in oil and gas values, but the president also said the budget for fiscal year 2017 is just about $59,000 less than the current budget and included cutbacks in both academics and athletics.
“I feel like we were able to handle it just fine,” Dr. Riza said, “and if we hadn’t said something, about 75 percent of our employees would have never known we had a budget cut.”
The Riza administration is not calling for any increases to tuition or fees, reflecting the president’s desire not to put the burden on students.
Regents did approve an increase in taxes for the college district, which is all of Donley County, adopting a rate of $0.230677 per $100 value compared to the current rate of $0.220802. The new rate increases taxes on a $100,000 by $9.88 per year.
Clarendon College also receives revenue from a five-cent maintenance tax for its campuses in Childress and Gray counties.
The college held two public hearings on the tax rate, and only had one citizen speak out about the tax rate. That person was in favor of the proposed rate and noted the tremendous return on investment Donley County receives from the college tax.
In other business, regents approved the college’s policy manual and student handbook and approved a bid for tax delinquent property at Howardwick. During last Thursday’s regular board meeting, the board discussed the budget and the policy manual. Also at that time, Riza informed the board that the president of the Texas Association of Community Colleges, Jacob Fraire, would be on campus that week to meet with Sen. Kel Seliger and attend Friday’s town hall meeting.
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