AWC board passes 2019-2020 budget

Included are 1.73% property tax hike, 2% employee pay raise

The Arizona Western College governing board approved the school’s 20192020 budget after a monthlong public comment period at their monthly board on May 13.

The budget passed 4-1, with board member Anna Camacho casting a no vote. AWC President Dr. Daniel Corr said Camacho voted no due to the 1.73% increase in property taxes that the budget included.

“It’s important to note that the first 1.1% was to make up from the calculation error out of La Paz County last year,” said Corr. “She indicated she could support 1.1 to get us back, but would not be able to support any additional property tax increase.”

The budget also accounts for uncertainty in state funding, and includes money for two new police cruisers, funding for facilities and technology upgrades and a 2% across the board pay raise that excludes employees that will be affected by the increase in minimum wage to $12 an hour that Proposition 206 will bring about in January 2020.

Corr felt that the process went well overall, saying that this is the first year that the school had a strategic plan to draft a budget around.

“This budget reflects the strategic directions that we identified in our strategic plan,” he said. “There are set aside line items for technology, which is four of the 19 objectives that we have, (and) development of open educational resources.

“It directly links to the guiding path that we set out through our strategic plan.”

The “open educational resources” that Corr referred to are an effort to reduce one of the biggest non-tuition costs of attending college — textbooks. The 20192020 budget includes money for grants that professors can apply for to draft their own materials, which can then be used for free by

students or bought in print form for a much lower cost than proprietary books.

Corr hopes to encourage adoption of open educational resources by letting students know which classes utilize them and having them choose. Now when they register, they can see which courses won’t require an expensive textbook.

Also included in the budget is a program dubbed the “La Paz County promise,” a scholarship program that would essentially make college free for any La Paz County high school graduate.

The program would reimburse the entire cost of tuition to attend Arizona Western College full time after graduation. Students would have to be continuously enrolled at more than 12 credit hours per semester and getting Cs or above in order to qualify.

“That’s a big deal and I hope it’s understood to be,” said Corr. “Because I think that can be a game changer for La Paz County.”