Anderson: “Realign resources …”
POUGHKEEPSIE – First the good news – Dutchess County’s college is still the best bargain in the state, with the lowest tuition among community colleges. The downside – despite that, enrollment is declining.
That creates a bit of a dilemma for college officials
Vice-President and Dean of Administration Dr. William Anderson made an initial presentation of early budget planning at the monthly Dutchess County Legislature meeting Monday night.
In answer to some questions from legislators, he said lower enrollment does not necessarily translate into the ability to cut expenses. Instead, they are looking at how to rebuild the student population.
“Realign resources from other areas to support both the recruitment side and also taking resources that we have and putting them into retention efforts,” Anderson said.
One positive trend is toward fulltime student enrollment.
Anderson did not have a forecast on what the 2016-17 budget will look like. That’s still being worked on with the trustees.
He did note that for the current year, revenue is at about $61 million, but expenses are at $62 million. They are tapping the fund balance to cover that, and that is something they have been doing for the past few years.
“At the end of this year, we’ll have about $10 million left in the fund balance and we expect that’s about 16.2 percent of our operating expenses,” Anderson noted.
That is a bit over the state recommendation of five to 15 percent.
Anderson said they have a five-year plan to spend some of the fund balance to support the college.
Two college-related action items on the agenda were an almost $2 million in capital projects, including an electrical backup system, and $990,000 in bonding to cover the college share of the cost. The state is picking up the other 50 percent.
