College District Faces $3-Million Budget Shortfall

A shortfall in state funding is causing about $3 million in budget cuts at three Orange County community colleges, officials of the college district said.

Unless the fiscal picture brightens, district officials said Friday, there may be no pay raise this year for 2,200 contract employees and 2,800 part-time workers, said Nancy A. Pollard, president of the district’s board of trustees of the Coast Community College District.

The district governs Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Golden West College in Huntington Beach and Coastline Community College in Fountain Valley.

A hiring freeze has been imposed at all three colleges, she said, but no staff cuts are imminent.

“We’re not thinking about layoffs, and cutting staff would be the last thing we’d do,” Pollard said.

Coast Community College District, with about 50,000 students, is the second largest in the state. But like most others in the state, enrollment has declined since 1983. Last year, for example, enrollment fell 2.5%.

The district in June had planned a $94.9-million budget for the forthcoming school year. But two things caused a shortfall in anticipated state funds. One was the unexpectedly sharp drop in worldwide oil prices, and the other was Gov. George Deukmejian’s veto of extra funds for schools and community colleges with declining enrollments.

Purchases Deferred

The drop in oil prices meant less income this year from California’s tideland oil projects. Much of that income goes to colleges and universities for building costs, and the difference for the Coast Community College District this year is $1.5 million.

Deukmejian’s veto caused the other $1.5 million loss to the district.

Phillis Basile, vice chancellor for the district, said that all non-instructional equipment purchases are being deferred, and Pollard said some maintenance work probably will be postponed.

Basile also said that contract talks with employee bargaining units have been deferred until after the November election. A $400-million bond for capital construction at colleges and universities is proposed on the November ballot.

Both Basile and Pollard said that failure of the statewide ballot issue would jeopardize the already slim prospects for giving employees a pay raise this year. (The bond funding, although earmarked for capital construction, would free other funds for the raises.)

Pollard said she has no regrets about the board’s decision last May to keep public television station KOCE. KOCE will receive about $1 million in district funding this year. The district at one time had plans to rid itself entirely of financial responsibility to the station, but it changed those plans in May.