LCC spending for year to hold steady.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

The most extraordinary thing about next year's budget for Lane Community College is its ordinariness.

In contrast to the past two years, when steep budget cuts led to sharp tuition increases and program reductions, the 2004-05 budget pretty much holds the line. The only tuition increase is a $1.50 adjustment per credit hour to account for inflation. No class or program cuts are proposed.

"It hasn't been the event that we've had to deal with the last couple of years, which has been a real plus for the college," LCC President Mary Spilde said. "People have been able to focus on their work this year, and that's a much better thing to do than worry about your job."

The LCC Board will hold a public hearing on the $79.2 million spending plan at its meeting tonight and is expected to adopt the budget afterward. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in the administration building boardroom, with the public hearing set for about 6:45 p.m.

This year's general fund budget is up 11.6 percent from the current year.

That's mostly because of a $2.7 million carryover from this year and an accounting change that moved classes supported entirely by tuition out of a special fund and into the general fund.

The carryover came mostly from cautious spending by the college, Spilde said.

The college expects to bring in slightly more money than it spends next year following four years in which it spent more than it earned. Reserves made up the difference in those years.

Property tax revenue is expected to increase 4 percent, to $12.3 million from $11.8 million.

Thanks in part to the larger-than-budgeted ending balance, the spending plan for next year even includes some money for a few campus investments.

The budget includes $1.37 million to make progress with a $3 million backlog of deferred maintenance projects as well as replace equipment and meet other building needs.

The money will be a mix of one-time funds from the ending balance and additional amounts from the general fund as the college tries to restore its annual maintenance budget.

The college also will use $500,000 from the ending balance to shore up reserves that were drained in the past several years.

Smaller amounts will be set aside to improve work force development and continuing education programs and boost energy efficiency.

The budget also has money to help ease the squeeze on classes left by past cuts, some $600,000 to add extra class sections in response to demand, something the college hasn't been little able to afford in recent years. Tighter class schedules made it hard for students to get the classes they need to complete their programs on time.

Spilde cautioned that not all is well. The $8 million cut from the budget in the previous two years left a long-term dent in the number of classes LCC offers.

"We can't lose sight of the fact that when you make the kind of cuts we've had to make, there is going to be less available," she said. "We can't do magic here and wave that $8 million back into the budget. It's just not there."

In fact, this year's respite from budget distress is expected to be short-lived. The college is projecting a $1 million deficit in 2005-06 and $2 million to $3 million the year after that, depending on how much money the state allocates for community colleges.

"We're not out of the woods yet," Spilde said. "I wish I could say that things are looking good, but they're not. We're OK for now."