College hiring freeze starts today; 2 percent cut pending

College leaders have ordered an immediate hiring freeze and budget cuts up to 2 percent in every department across campus.

Also, student fees could increase by $6 a unit, jumping to $26 per unit.

Superintendent-President John Romo told the Board of Trustees Thursday that City College needs to brace itself for tight times. He and Joe Sullivan, vice president of Business Services, previewed the possible impact of $483.5 million in cuts proposed by the governor for California's 109 community colleges.

City College is anticipating about a $4 million shortfall-about 5 percent of the total operating budget-for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

This estimate may change, come the Governor's budget revision, due in mid-May.

"We're working with scenarios," Romo told The Channels. "It's all very hypothetical."

The college is preparing for the shortfall and already is looking for ways to cut expenses.

During Thursday's Board of Trustees study session, Romo advised that the college move "conservatively" into the situation. He proposed a 2-percent cut in departmental funds, to be determined by the respective vice presidents.

They will evaluate programs and target areas with the least impact to faculty and student services, but "all programs will have to ultimately make some cuts," Romo said.

The vice presidents already have begun to examine spending and will present their findings at the April 24 Board of Trustee meeting.

Romo and Sullivan Thursday laid out what they see as the main impacts of the pending budget crises.

They include the following:

1. A hiring freeze. Romo said that no positions not already in the hiring process would be offered or filled until May.

Romo said that he does not anticipate layoffs in the 2008-2009 fiscal year-which begins July 1-and that the board will "do everything it can do to avoid layoffs."

Part of the college's budget development principles, developed after the 2002 fiscal crisis, places employee compensation as one of its highest priorities. The college might need to eliminate some hourly positions, Romo said.

2. No employee salary increases for all employees for the 2008-09 academic year. Because no cost-of-living nor money for adding extra students is expected next year from the state, no money will be available for raises. There are no plans to cut salaries at this time.

3. Slow down current spending. For the three months left of the current fiscal year, officials will reduce allocations for equipment repair and maintenance, from $1.8 million to $500,000.

4. Eliminate $1.2 million in allocations for construction projects. Current projects, such as installation of portables on East Campus, will continue. But all projects set for 2008-09 will be unfunded unless Measure V passes in June.

If passed, the ballot measure will provide $17 million for construction projects and postponed maintenance projects and will fill in this year's gap.

4. Higher student fees. Per-unit enrollment fees could rise, Sullivan said.

In her analysis of the governor's budget, the California Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill recommended raising the community college per-unit fee from $20 to $26, its previous amount in 2006. The Legislature lowered the fee to $20 per unit less than a year ago.

"It took so much effort to get it down, and now it's bouncing back up," said Desmond O'Neill, president of the Board of Trustees, at Thursday's meeting.

The fee increase is not expected to increase revenue because the state would adjust how it is distributed, Sullivan added.

5. Less-than-expected property taxes. Adding to City College's economic woes was a mid-fiscal-year $1.1 million cut from the state, which they learned of in March. Miscalculated property tax revenue left an $84.4 million shortfall for community colleges. Community colleges are funded from combination of both money from the state's General Fund and local property tax revenue.

K-12 schools are expected to experience a similar shortfall, but any deficit in property tax revenue will be backfilled by the state's General Fund, not the case for community colleges

Romo said that the college was able to absorb the cut because of one-time unexpected income, but the shortfall is likely to carry over into the next fiscal year. The college has factored this possibility into its deficit estimate.

"We are expecting it will probably get worse," Romo said.