Though ACC is the largest community college in southeast Kansas, it is making ends meet on less money than its counterparts, president John Masterson told trustees at their meeting last week.
In 2018, the school worked with $15 million in revenue while it spent $16 million.
That, of course, is not good, unless you planned to spend more, which we did, Masterson said.
Allen Community College received $2.89 million in dedicated property taxes from the county that year, which was 20.3% of the mill levy. ACCs mill levy is set to drop to 19.824% in January.
We serve more students than any other college in the area, but the numbers are pretty interesting, he said.
Masterson went on to note the smallest school Independence received 41.7% from Montgomery Countys mill levy, equalling $5.87 million. Coffeyville received 41.06% at $7.49 million.
Neosho received 37.426% on $129,862,390 for $4,860,250. Labette had 35.386% on a $134,417,973 valuation for $4,756,514. And Fort Scott took in $3,010,695 for 20.47% of $103,265,119.
Could you imagine what we could do at 25% funding? Heck, if we were at 40% we would have a football team, Masterson said. But we got the budget under 20% for 2020.
Masterson said because of past legislation, if the college receives any money from the state, that 80% of that new money is to go to reduce the local mill levies. Ive always questioned this since the Trustees are authorized by statute to set the mill levy, Masterson said. It does not mean the money will automatically reduce the mill levy from the previous year, but that it would go to reduce the total amount budgeted from the mill levy in the proposed budget revenues.
The state has not provided what is deemed as new money in the past 10 years. However, in the 2019-2020 budget we received $87,853 in new money. So we took 80% of that, which amounted to $70,282 and reduced the mill levy from 20.347 to 19.874.
Masterson said while the school was able to reduce the mill levy this year, he does not believe it will be sustainable to continue doing so in the future.
Masterson said ACC needs to find a way to spread the word about how good a deal it is for students to attend there.
Currently the school charges $110 per credit hour, while room and board costs $5,200 per academic year, including an 18-meal per week plan. Full-time enrollment for an entire academic year comes in at $8,920.
Emporia State has a $15,910 yearly cost, while the University of Kansas charges $11,166 per semester, without books.
With prices like that, you would think we would be needing to block students from coming. It would save students so much money, Masterson said.
