Contact: Ann Hatch
214-378-1819;
ahatch@dcccd.edu
For immediate release — Sept. 5, 2012
(DALLAS) — Members of the board of trustees for the Dallas County Community College District approved DCCCD’s 2012-2013 proposed budget during the group’s regular monthly meeting held Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012, at the district’s downtown system office. Key elements of that budget included a tax rate increase for Dallas County property owners, a tuition increase, funds for deferred maintenance, a competitive market salary adjustment for faculty members, an across-the-board salary adjustment for employees and items that dealt with distance learning, technology and other operational areas.
Citizens who both supported and opposed the tax rate and tuition increases spoke during public hearings on Aug. 21 and 28, as well as at the Sept. 4 meeting. Following discussion and comments by trustees, the board voted to pass the budget with a vote of 6 to 1.
The tax rate increase of $20 per year, based on the average Dallas County home value of $130,199 — approximately $1.66 per month or 5.5 cents per day — will appear on ad valorum tax statements that are due by February 2013. The new tax rate is a two-cent increase over the effective tax rate, which puts DCCCD’s maintenance and operations tax rate at 9.86 cents per $100 valuation.
The $7-per-semester-credit-hour increase begins with the spring 2013 semester; students who live in Dallas County will pay $52 per semester credit hour starting next January. Out-of-district and out-of-state students will pay a higher rate, as they do now. (Discussion occurred about an additional $7-per-credit-hour increase that may be proposed for the spring 2015 semester; such an increase would need to be approved by the DCCCD board of trustees in the district’s 2014-2015 fiscal year’s budget.)
DCCCD employees have not received a cost-of-living increase since 2008. In 2011 and 2012, 361 employees were affected by either voluntary retirement or reduction-in-force initiatives.
District officials provided a number of reasons for the budget measures, tax rate increase and tuition increase:
- The district has faced three consecutive years of budget cuts; during that time, state funds were cut by $25 million, in addition to lost revenue from property taxes as property values dropped.
- Enrollment has increased in the district by 20 percent over the last five years, and following approval by voters in 2004, a bond program was completed for 28 new buildings to meet the needs of that growing student population — more than 83,000 credit and 25,000 continuing education students each semester.
- DCCCD’s tax rate ranks among the lowest in the state and has remained relatively flat since 2004. The state’s average tuition rate among community colleges is $73 per credit hour, and the new increase means that DCCCD’s tuition will still remain significantly lower than the state average.
DCCCD’s total budget for 2012-2013 is $501,428,578, which includes $6.3 million in additional tuition revenue and $32 million in additional tax revenues for current operations.
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