TVCC sends letter to Gov. Perry

The board of trustees at Trinity Valley Community College wants some answers from Governor Rick Perry.

At Monday's meeting, the panel voted unanimously to send a letter of objection to Perry's accusation that community colleges have falsified their budget requests to the state.

Perry shocked the state's community colleges two weeks ago when he vetoed $155 million in insurance premium funding for college employees.

Currently, the state funds insurance premiums for the state's community college faculty members and professional personnel. The insurance for other community college employees, such as maintenance and cafeteria personnel, is covered by tax revenue and tuition funds. Due to the veto, the state will not fund insurance for any community college employee for the 2008- 09 fiscal year.

"Community colleges have (used) millions of state dollars annually to pay the benefits of non-state paid employees. To get money for these employees, community colleges falsified their appropriations requests. As a result, their appropriation for fiscal year 2008-09 is approximately $126 million too high," Perry said in a statement about the veto.

TVCC officials say they are surprised and upset by Perry's accusation. For the college, the vetoed part of the insurance premium comes to $1.7 million.

"You can not imagine how shocked and offended we at Trinity Valley Community College were to learn that half of our health insurance premiums were vetoed by you and you accused us of falsifying our Legislative Appropriations Request document," the letter approved by the board reads.

The board, and TVCC President Ron Baugh, maintains that under no circumstances did TVCC falsify any document.

"We would very much appreciate it if you could provide us with the specifics of how you arrived at the conclusion that we falsified our request . If you can not provide such information, we would very much appreciate an apology for the false accusations you made against us," the letter continues.

Baugh, who drafted the letter to the governor, told the board Monday that many community colleges are sending letters of objection to the governor's office as well as state representatives and senators. Also, he noted, District 4 State Representative Betty Brown sent a letter from her office on behalf of TVCC, objecting to the veto.

In preparation for the upcoming budget cut, Baugh said he has initiated a spending freeze until further notice. The college is currently in the planning stage for the 2007- 08 budget, and Baugh said he has asked employees to cut as much as possible out of their budget requests for the next fiscal year.

"We've got a real problem," said Baugh. "We're asking everyone to help us become as lean as possible. I would love to be able to explain in a rational manner why the governor is thinking as he does, but that's beyond my capability."

TVCC's letter to Perry states that to make up the entire $1.7 million, the college would have to increase its tuition by $16 per semester hour (a 76 percent increase) or increase the tax rate by 2.2 cents per $100 valuation (a 34 percent increase). Baugh said the college may well take measures to increase taxes or tuition in order to cope with the veto, but they will not be that extreme.

"I'm not excited about the thought of increasing anything, " said Baugh. Most likely, he noted, the college will cope by instituting a modest increase of tuition rates, a small tax increase, and big budget cuts.

At Monday's meeting, the board put one of its own expenses on hold in respect of the purchasing freeze. The board has been planning an update to the college's master plan for several months. TVCC has completed several major construction projects in the past two decades, but there are still buildings which need updating and replacing and the master plan would help identify which construction projects the institution should address first.

The board decided earlier this year to employ Corgan Associates, an architectural firm which has worked extensively with TVCC in recent years, to look at the integrity of several buildings on the Athens campus.

That expense was estimated at between $100,000 and $150,000.

"This is something we need to do, but for now we need to put it on hold," said Baugh.