FROM:   Mary Spilde

RE:  Budget Update

DATE:  March 28, 2003

This evening the board of education made final decisions on tuition and fee levels, budget reductions and budget adjustments for 2003-04.  You will recall that on April 8 we announced budget proposals to the college community.  Since then we have had three meetings with the board, all-staff and public forums and two meetings with students.  

As a result of the feedback we heard, we developed additional options for the board on differential pricing and the transportation fee that we presented last week.  At that time the board favored reducing the impact of differential pricing and a revised transportation fee.  They also expressed concern about some of the cuts. We presented a revised plan from the Athletics program and they asked for more information on a couple of the proposals, which was provided to them. 

Tonight the board heard more public comment and then proceeded to go through each of the revenue recommendations.  They approved all of them as recommended.  After much discussion, they also accepted the recommendations on budget reductions.  Finally, they approved the recommendations for budget adjustments. We will post the spreadsheet on the budget website as soon as possible.  We will now move into the next phase of the budget process.

I fully realize that there are some who disagree with the proposals we made to the board and subsequently with the board decisions. I think that is to be expected.  All of us have our own opinions about what needs to be done to balance the budget and none of us has the corner on the best ideas. I think we tried to make the best set of recommendations given a set of not so good choices. However, I think it is very positive that given a $6 million deficit, there were very few areas of disagreement and some of those we were able to iron out during the last three weeks. I am very pleased that we were able to make proposals that did not result in lay-offs of contracted staff and did not result in dramatic decreases in program offerings and services. 

I need to say that our work is not done. The state revenue picture is still a moving target.  The co-chairs of the Ways and Means committee have proposed a budget and the governor has proposed a second budget. There is a $20 million spread between the two budgets in allocation for community colleges. It is unknown at this point how this will be resolved. Needless to say, we are continuing to work hard to let legislators know the impact on Lane. 

I want to thank all of you who provided information and ideas to us and developed plans and proposals for consideration.  It helped us get the job done. I also appreciate your support and encouragement as we have moved through this process. I am looking forward to a time when we will have enough resources to support all we do and we will work hard toward that end. It may not happen immediately but I am confident that the steps we are taking will get us there in the end.
Thanks.