MHCC given mixed results from Salem

State Senator and MHCC District board member Rod Monroe helped secure $800,000 for MHCC this week to be used for capital expenditures.

The Oregon Legislature adjourned its regular session at 8:48 p.m. Monday. At the meeting, Monroe helped secure MHCC’s portion of the $9.6 million set aside for community college capital expenditures. The Legislature also maintained the current levels of grant money for students at MHCC.

The capital expenditure money will be used for building projects on campus, such as new classrooms. This money cannot be used for hiring new staff or offsetting the college deficit.

In addition, the Legislature also approved Head Start money, which Monroe said will be used in correlation with the childhood center.

“Actually, Mt. Hood ended up doing pretty well out of the session, given the economic circumstances,” said Monroe on Wednesday, adding that other state community colleges will be in the same boat as MHCC.

However, the overall community college funding from the state decreased by 3.5 percent.

“The 3.5 percent cut to community college funding was a result of a decision we made back in (2011) when we basically withheld a certain portion of the approximately $420 million that was supposed to go to community colleges. We just kind of set it aside and said (the community colleges) will get that in February if the economy doesn’t continue to decline, if the revenue for the state didn’t continue to decline,” said Monroe, adding that the state revenue did decline by several million dollars.

Monroe also said the state FTE-based funding of community colleges is being discussed in Salem. The discussion includes how to better fund expensive programs, such as nursing, instead of funding all programs the same regardless of actual program costs and their effectiveness in helping students get jobs.

In April, the president and his cabinet will make recommendations on how to address program costs. A meeting will follow in late April in which the board will review the recommendations and look at filling a “several hundred thousand” dollar hole in the budget, possibly looking at cuts in programs or a tuition raise to balance the budget, according to Monroe.

Monroe said he always tries to hold tuition increases at a minimum, but that with the state funding being cut, they may have to raise tuition “a bit” in order to maintain the current programs.