TC tax increase will be focus of meeting

Texarkana College Board of Trustees will meet in regular session Monday to approve the 2017-18 budget and consider a tax increase that would bring $340,000 to the college.

Two public hearings have been held on the proposed increase from 11.0718 cents to 11.8115 cents per $100 assessed property value, with the majority of Bowie County residents speaking in favor of the increase.

Last year, trustees raised the tax rate for the first time in five years and generated an extra $300,000 for the 2016-17 budget.

During last week’s second public hearing, TC President James Henry Russell said the funds were needed because the state is not funding community colleges as much as they were 10 years ago. “There has been a big shift in the state, from the state funding community colleges to pushing it to the local community,” he said. “You can ask pretty much any elected official in Texas,

and they will tell you (that) over the past two decades, it’s been a conscious shift.”

He went on to state that in 2008, the state was giving the college $3 million more than they are today and that they’ve made changes in staff to adjust for that loss.

“Today, our total payroll is $1.3 million less than it was in 2011,” he said. “We’re cutting our expenses and doing a great deal to try to stay efficient.”

Despite making cuts, TC has struggled to find financing since the state’s reduction.

In 2011, TC alumnus and billionaire Ross Perot stepped in to help, giving the college $1 million a year over five years. That funding ended last year. Trustees proposed raising the tax in 2015, but an anonymous donor gave the school $1 million on the condition the tax not be raised for one year.

In other business, the board will consider an interlocal agreement with Sulphur River Basin Authority for the Clean Rivers Program and a memorandum of understanding with Texarkana Independent School District for the adult education program.

Trustees will also hear a report from the faculty association on their giving $40,000 to the TC Foundation to fund a scholarship endowment.

The meeting will be held at 11:30 a.m. in the Patman Room of the Truman Arnold Student Center, 2500 N. Robison Road.