State Funds, Higher Enrollment Lift Colleges’ Financial Condition

Buoyed by new state revenues and higher enrollment on its three campuses, the Ventura County Community College District has adopted a 1996-97 spending plan that calls for spending nearly $5 million more than a year ago.

Trustees approved the $73.8-million general fund budget during a board meeting late Tuesday after a short discussion.

“We’re in the best financial condition we’ve been in a long time,” said trustee John D. Tallman, who was once responsible for the district’s budgets as a top administrator before retiring and winning a seat on the board.

“But that’s all relative,” Tallman added. “We still don’t have enough money to address a lot of important needs.”

Several changes in the 1996-97 statewide budget also have accounted for the college district’s improved fiscal standing.

For example, the state budget restored to California’s community colleges about $14 million in property taxes that had previously been diverted. It also included more than $90 million in block grants to the campuses and offered a 3% cost-of-living adjustment systemwide.

Those adjustments amount to about $2 million in extra revenue for the district.

Also, districtwide enrollment is up more than 15% over a year ago, allowing budget writers to raise their revenue expectations.

Ventura College is slated to receive the largest share of the money, with Moorpark College a close second and Oxnard College, the smallest of the three campuses, getting the smallest sum.

The adopted budget allocates $23.5 million to Ventura College, $22.5 million to Moorpark College and $13.4 million to Oxnard College over the current fiscal year.

Administrators in the district office will spend approximately $4 million on expenses.

The new budget represents a sharp turnaround from as recently as two years ago, when the district was running an annual deficit of nearly $1 million. Earlier audits turned up accounting deficiencies and other lax bookkeeping practices that contributed to the shortfall. And declining enrollment threatened to strip the district of more money.

Tallman credited recently hired Chancellor Philip Westin for much of the progress, saying that tighter fiscal control and district decentralization practices have enabled the district to spend its money more wisely.

“Instead of going into a slow death spiral by not providing enough classes and cutting things back, the district has become much more in a mode of providing a maximum opportunity for students,” Tallman said.

Westin was hired in 1995, a year after Chancellor Thomas G. Lakin died of a sudden illness. Lakin had advocated more district control and a largely centralized administration.

“The colleges had to have some freedom, and they have responded,” he added. “They’ve been able to do some things that would probably have never gotten through the hierarchy under the old system.”

But not all district employees are pleased with the district’s progress.

Leanne Colvin, president of the local classified employees union, said she is still waiting for raises for the district’s secretaries, groundskeepers and other so-called classified workers.

“The district looks like it has plenty of money on paper, but none of it filters down to the classified workers,” she said. “We’re still in negotiations for a raise.”