Glen Oaks Community College

Institutional Financial Information

The budget at Glen Oaks Community College has, within the last 5 years, been stable and able to support programming. Although the College has had to reduce the number of employees, no program disruptions occurred during the restructuring.

Revenue sources (property tax, tuition, and state funding), for the most part, have been stable to slightly declining. Property tax revenues are the lion's share of the current unrestricted budget, and they increase every year due to increase in property valuations and new construction within the taxing district. The Headlee Amendment, however, does limit the amount of growth in the property tax line each year by stating that revenues from that source may not increase more than inflation for the previous fiscal year. Thus, in order not to exceed the rate of inflation, it will limit the millage that the College is allowed to charge. Headlee, therefore, has affected our budget 9 of the last 10 fiscal years. Tuition is relatively stable in that our student base remains about the same and we rarely raise tuition charges higher than 2 to 3 percentage points. Furthermore, fee revenues follow the tuition trend. Most fees are tied to a credit hour charge although several are user fees (a student is not charged, however, unless he or she has registered for a course that includes a fee). Finally, state revenue has declined steadily for the last 5 years. Fortunately, this source accounts for less than 25% of our operating budget. Obviously the loss of state revenues hurt, but they are not as painful as a 2 or 3 percent drop in property taxes would be.

By far, the largest expenditures for the College on an annual basis are salary and fringe. Salary and fringe account for approximately 78.5 % of the operating budget. That leaves only 21.5 % discretionary expenses to run the institution. The unknowns in the salary and fringe area continue to be employee health insurance and retirement costs to those employees in the state retirement system. The faculty and administration have worked together to give the option of a lesser cost insurance while still remaining with the carrier that the faculty want. The same can be said for the support staff and their carrier. Those employees wanting the original coverage have to pay an additional monthly amount to carry that coverage. State retirement costs are accelerating at a fast pace. The state system is a defined benefit plan that continually takes more annual contributions from the participating educational institutions in order to sustain its obligations. The state is starting discussions about grandfathering the current system and instituting a defined contribution plan for all future employees.

The College has entered into collective bargaining agreements with the faculty and support staff unions for the next 2 fiscal years. The faculty agreement calls for 2.5% increases to the step and level schedule, and the support staff contract calls for a 3% increase to their compensation grid. The administrative employees of the college will receive increases in equal percentage of total compensation increases as those received by the faculty.

The College has been diligent in addressing all maintenance concerns and has no appreciable amount of deferred maintenance backlog about which to be concerned. In 2005 – 2006 alone, the College addressed its heating system's delivery system to the buildings of the campus, replaced large sections of roofing that it could not get guaranteed for at least a five year period, and added another well for campus water requirements.

The following pieces of financial information will further assist in assessing the financial stability of Glen Oaks Community College: