OTC tentative budget: 3% pay hike for full-time staff

It's not exactly how a reporter would sell a story, but Hal Higdon, chancellor of Ozarks Technical Community College, has one word for the college's tentative 2015 budget: boring.

The budget was reviewed by the college's board of trustees Monday afternoon.

"A lot of times we have to talk about how we are going to share cuts throughout the college," Higdon said. "Or how we are going to share an increase. But this year we are not sharing any increased money, and we are not taking anything away. This is about the most boring budget I've ever been involved with. It's pretty vanilla."

The budget won't be voted on until June 9. It goes into effect July 1.

It calls for:

• A 3 percent pay increase for full-time employees. Roughly 23 percent of the college's instructors are full time, although they teach 42 percent of all credit hours. They received a 2 percent hike last year. Higdon said it has been several years since full-time instructors received a raise as high as 3 percent.

• A 1 percent pay increase for the roughly 600 part-time instructors. They received a similar raise two years ago. The current rates are $707 per credit hour for those who have taught at OTC for up to four years; $797 per credit hour for those who have taught at OTC for five to nine years; and $960 per credit hour for those who have taught at OTC for 10 or more years.

• There are no major equipment purchases in the pending budget, and no additional major expenses for campuses that opened a year ago in Hollister and Waynesville.

Marla Moody, OTC's vice chancellor for finance, said state lawmakers approved a budget that calls for a 5 percent increase in funding for Missouri's 12 community colleges. But state funding is only about 14 percent of OTC's revenue; another 11 percent comes from local property taxes.

In addition, lawmakers approved another $6 million to be distributed among community colleges, of which OTC would receive $750,000.

Higdon cautioned that state funding could be lower. The state is collecting a less than projected amount from various taxes, including the most volatile of taxes, the sales tax. Gov. Jay Nixon can withhold funds because he is legally obligated to balance the budget.

The legislative session ends Friday.

OTC receives the remaining 75 percent of its revenue from student tuition, which will increase June 1. In April, trustees for the first time in school history hiked tuition by different amounts — $3, $6 and $9 per credit hour — for the college's three different program areas.

All students now pay $92 per credit hour. Starting June 1, tuition for general education courses, such as history, will be $95; tuition for technology courses, such as welding, will be $98; and tuition for the high-demand allied health courses, such as dental hygiene, will be $101.

In addition, the fees all students must pay will go from $13 per credit hour to $15. The college opened its doors in 1991.

In total, the tuition increases will generate an additional $1.5 million.

At OTC, Higdon said, a 5 percent increase in state funding basically covers the annual increase in utility and insurance costs.