We’ve been hearing a lot about state budget cuts recently, but what does it all mean for the College and you? In a nutshell, we’re facing a $10.3 million budget shortfall for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. The College is expected to lose $5 million dollars in state funding and another $5.3 million through a property tax levy freeze.

College Funding

To better understand the significance of our budget situation, we first need to talk about the College’s three primary funding resources. Local property taxes support 62 percent of our budget, tuition and fees fund another 25 percent and the College receives an additional nine percent in state aid. The remaining balance comes from federal and enterprise funds, as well as operational revenues. The total College budget is slightly more than $147 million – 80 percent of that goes toward salary and benefits.

Guiding Principles

How do we address the budget shortfall without interrupting instruction and services to you? After careful consideration, we have come up with these six budget-reduction guiding principles:

• Maintain headcount enrollments, while increasing full-time equivalent (FTE) student enrollment.
• Provide infrastructure operations and facilities maintenance and care at sustainable levels.
• Maintain instructional access and service levels across the district.
• Focus and sharpen efforts to increase student retention and completion of certificates and degrees.
• Reduce expenditures by about 10 percent.
• Make decisions with a long-term perspective.

Closing the Gap

Thanks to voluntary salary and benefits reductions from faculty, staff and administration, we have already been able to reduce nearly $6 million from our budget shortfall. The college is also looking at whether to fill staff vacancies, while it takes a closer look at budget adjustments and cost savings. A small portion of the gap will also be made up through a tuition increase of 5.5 percent, which was set by the Wisconsin Technical College System.

Madison College President Bettsey Barhorst had this to say about our current budget situation:

“While we’re doing our fair share to help with the state budget concerns through the financial sacrifices of our faculty, staff and administrators, these are emergency measures that are not sustainable for an institution that runs a lean operation even in the best of economic times.”

As the college continues to address these and future budget issues, we remain committed to our students and community, just as we have for nearly 100 years. If you have any questions or ideas, please e-mail me at [email protected].

Dr. Keith Cornille
Vice President for Student Development