by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
At just past the mid-point of the 2010 legislative session, every agency that’s funded in part or totally by the State is holding its collective breath.
For Florida State College at Jacksonville, it’s a $10 million inhale.
That amount is the difference between what the State Senate might approve for the 80,000-student college and what the State House might approve.
“We are a facing new challenges this legislative session because of the economy,” said FSCJ President Steven Wallace during Tuesday’s meeting of the school’s Board of Trustees at the school’s South Campus.
Wallace said the budget stress isn’t welcome, but it’s not unexpected.
“What is unexpected is the basic appropriation from the House and the Senate is farther apart than in recent memory,” said Wallace. “In our case, it’s about a $10 million difference.”
According to Vice President of Administrative Services Steve Bowers, the Senate is set to approve about $6.4 million more than last year for the school. The House, however, is looking at reducing the budget by about $3.7 million.
“That is going to be very difficult to reconcile,” said Bowers, adding if the Senate bill passes, the school will be able to cover the costs associated with increases enrollment.
Bowers also said the State is predicting a mild, but slow, economic recovery, but he isn’t sure that recovery is coming any time soon. The numbers, he said, may indicate the recession is leveling off, but he doesn’t see any indications the economy is showing signs of improving.
“We are highly skeptical of this recovery,” he said. “We will focus on conservation (during the next budget cycle) whether the Senate bill or House bill prevails.”
Wallace said he has expressed concern over the $10 million difference to lawmakers in Tallahassee. However, he isn’t convinced anyone has any idea how to “bridge the gap” between the two budget proposals.
“The House is making a larger dollar investment in K-12 and health care and Medicaid,” he said. “The Senate is making a larger investment in higher education. The House is looking at the short-term, the Senate is looking at the long-term. It will be very interesting to see which side prevails.”
Wallace said the school’s administration will hold a budget workshop at the end of May to prepare for the 2010-11 budget.
“We can’t rely on State projections and we know there will be a loss of $6.1 million in federal stimulus money,” he said. “We still haven’t turned away a single student and we don’t intend to. But, it gets harder every day.”
According to Wallace, during the recession enrollment has gone up 40 percent while funding has been cut 30 percent.
“We believe it’s the State’s responsibility to fund higher education,” he said.
In other news from the meeting:
• Bowers said seven of the school’s eight major remodeling, renovation and construction projects are on time and on budget. In March, bids were awarded on the eighth, the remodeling of the Academic Success Centers at the Downtown, Kent, North and South campuses. Bowers said all four were on or under budget until it was discovered the projects needed $200,000 worth of IT servers and cabling.
“They are fully funded and on the way to an August completion,” said Bowers.
Overall, the school has budgeted $280.7 million for capital projects at all campuses through 2013.
• Nancy Cooley, Open Campus president, was recently named interim president of the Downtown Campus. She replaced Edythe Abdullah, who resigned to become president of a community college in New Jersey. The school is currently conducting a national search to replace Abdullah.
• The Board approved a contract that will see The Dalton Agency serve as the official media buyer for the school through June 30, 2012. Dalton was the top-ranked responder to a Request for Proposal to buy TV, radio, print, Web and outdoor advertising for FSCJ. The contract is not to exceed $900,000 a year and that figure includes the purchased media time.
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