LEGISLATORS HEAR MHCC COMMUNITY PRIOR TO SESSION

MHCC students, staff, and community members talked to several Oregon state legislators early Wednesday morning about why Mt. Hood is important to them and the surrounding community, while sharing concerns over lack of funding for community colleges.

Associated Student Government (ASG) President Bob Hansen and Vice President Melanie Roberts led the event, welcoming each guest to Mt. Hood’s annual Legislative Breakfast, held in the Town & Gown Room.

College President Lisa Skari was the first to speak, pointing out key members of the MHCC Foundation board and MHCC District Board of Education in attendance, including District board members Jim Zordich, Tamie Arnold, and Annette Mattson.

Skari briefly discussed Gov. Kate Brown’s recommended budget plan for the 2019-21 state spending cycle. The proposal would effectively reduce funding (a slight spending increase would be offset by inflation and rising employee costs) for community colleges and the Oregon Promise, a grant which is offered to recent Oregon high school and GED test graduates attending community college. Brown’s proposal would also lead to a tuition increase of $18-$23 per credit over the next two years, according to Skari.

Brown’s proposed “investment budget” – nearly $650 million in funding for community colleges, which would rely on new taxes approved by the Legislature – appears more promising, Skari noted.

Skari, who is scheduled to meet with the governor next week, explained that when legislators see MHCC members or representatives in Salem, it’s about students, businesses and the community Mt. Hood represents and supports.

This led to a combination of students, business owners, and others sharing their stories and the importance of MHCC to them with the breakfast guests.

UPS, DOWNS DESCRIBED

Two ASG members spoke about their stories: Hansen, and Campus Affairs Representative Kim Poling, profiled in a recent issue of the Advocate. Hansen described how he and his wife chose to live in a trailer rather than rent an apartment, due to college costs. Poling shared how given her upbringing in extreme poverty and foster care, community college was her only option. She graduated in 2017 but is now continuing in the nursing program.

Local business owners Erinn Sowles and Brock Miller shared the importance of community college as it relates to business. Sowles, of Suburban Auto Group, said that in the dealer group’s two automotive shops in Gresham and Sandy, approximately half of the technicians are Mt. Hood graduates. These technicians are earning $40,000 to $160,000 per year, she said. The Jaksich Family Automotive Technology Center on the Gresham campus was formally named after Sowles’s parents after District board approval last year.

Miller highlighted the importance of the return on investment community colleges provide to the state and local community. He has served on the Foundation board for the past six or seven years.

Zordich raised concern over Brown’s budget plan. “(O)n paper, the level of funding proposed equates to the 2005-07 biennial budget,” he said, imploring the legislators to “think of our students” as they make funding decisions this year.

SECURING SUPPORT

Legislators were then given a chance to freely speak to those in attendance.

Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, was first to share. She said securing funding for Medicaid coverage and the Oregon Health Plan would be key issues of funding this year, but that reform for education funding should be taken seriously.

Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-East Portland, noted that he spoke with the governor over the phone the day before she released her recommended budget, hinting that she sensed people within secondary education would not be pleased with the proposal. He said she does have a strategy and knows that comprehensive revenue reform – the mix of new tobacco, corporate and other taxes Democrats are proposing – will be key. 

Dembrow also mentioned a community college caucus he is starting at the Capitol with Rep. Jeff Reardon, D-Happy Valley, in this session, with the first meeting scheduled for next week.

Reardon told the Mt. Hood gathering that he agreed with everyone’s statements, but at some point PERS (increased cost of the state Public Employee Retirement System) will need to be addressed, along with funding concerns.

He added that legally they cannot and will not take away retiree benefits, but that they will need to figure out what to do going forward. He then said it’s important as a community to step up to the conversation and be ready: “You have my support.”

BOND STILL CRUCIAL

MHCC District Board member Tamie Arnold asked the legislators what Mt. Hood could do as a community college to improve. Their answers touched on Mt. Hood’s longtime failure to win voter approval of a general obligation bond to fund major campus construction/renovations.

Sen. Lew Fredrick, D-North Portland, discussed bonds and the Gresham area, stating most people don’t know their neighbors, and said he thinks part of this recommended budget was strategically set up so that legislators and community colleges would have this conversation. That conversation should focus in terms of resources, especially in terms of business, as “that’s where the money is,” he said. “Talk with neighbors and businesses to have an absolute return on investment.”

State Rep. Carla Piluso, D-Gresham, wrapped things up, saying the best thing to happen is Skari bringing new energy to Mt. Hood. Piluso said she is optimistic going into this session, but knows there will be challenges. She stressed that the college’s bond attempt “needs to get passed, once and for all.”