Committee endorses proposed tuition hike

The higher cost of attending Dutchess Community College will be taken up by the county Legislature next week.

A proposed budget for Dutchess Community College that would raise tuition by 4.8 percent passed through a county legislative committee Thursday, clearing the way for the full Legislature to take up the spending plan when it meets next week.

The $66.8 million budget passed the Dutchess County Legislature’s Budget, Finance, and Personnel Committee, 11-1. Legislator Joel Tyner cast the lone “no” vote.

Tyner, D-Clinton, said

he opposed the budget because it increases student tuition.

Spending in the college’s 2017-18 budget is up 1 percent from the current year’s $66.1 million, and full-time tuition will rise to $3,696

per year from the current $3,528. Part-time tuition is to rise $7 per credit hour, to $154 from $147.

“Even with the $84-persemester increase … Dutchess will continue to have the lowest [community college] tuition in the state,” said college President Pamela Edington.

The proposed budget also calls for a $1 million

increase in the county’s contribution to the college, raising the amount Dutchess will kick in toward the college’s operations to $14,537,898.

The full Legislature will take up the measure on Monday. If approved, the plan will go to the state for final approval.

In Ulster County, lawmakers last month approved

a $24.2 million budget for SUNY Ulster for 2017-18 that hikes full time tuition at that college to $4,480 per year, a 3.5 percent increase from the current $4,330. Part-time tuition will increase by $5 per credit hour, to $170.

Ulster County’s contribution to the college’s operation will hold at $6.4 million.