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Proposed
Tax Levy Freeze Would Chill Economy,
Leave Students and Employers Out in the Cold
For months,
a team of administrative and union employees at Madison Area Technical
College (MATC) have been monitoring the various legislative proposals
that threaten drastic cuts to the college’s state funding.“We
have taken a hard look at what the potential of millions of dollars of
cuts over the next several years would do to MATC,” explains MATC
Chief Finance Officer Kevin Myren. “We continue to hope for the best,
but in preparing for the worst we’ve got some idea of what it would
mean for our students and community.”
The worst
for MATC would be passage of the tax levy freeze, proposed by the Joint
Finance Committee. The freeze would require a nearly $1,000,000 reduction
in the college’s current year operations, which began July 1. Because
the freeze is proposed for three years, the need to reduce expenses would
accumulate each year and force the college to slash services to eliminate
millions of dollars from its operations.
“Given
that our business is to help our students learn and prepare for careers,
most of our expenses pay for instructional and student support. So, in
dealing with millions of dollars in cuts, we would be forced to make staff
reductions and layoffs resulting in reduced programs, classes and services
for our students,” states Myren. He notes that MATC has earned and
maintained triple “A” bond ratings from institutional investors
for several years, and that 85% of residents in the college’s district
believe MATC offers good value to taxpayers.
“Neither
MATC nor our community has ever had to expect less from us before,”
says Myren. “And, ironically, never before – as our growing
enrollments demonstrate – have our services been more in demand to
train and retain the skilled workers needed to fuel our state’s economic
recovery.
“If
the tax levy freeze passes, we will need to start to help people understand
that there will be less MATC to go around – program waiting lists
will grow, classes will be cancelled and some services and programs will
be eliminated altogether.”
According to Myren, the college already has taken new and significant
action to reduce spending. “Our team monitoring potential cuts has
worked on a budget contingency plan and generated new ways to cut expenses.”
For instance, he says, the team reallocated about $1.7 million available
from retiring or departing faculty salaries and typical supply funding
to specific, high-priority needs at the college, such as expanding nursing
instruction, supporting new programs in plastics manufacturing and computer
information services and starting new services for underprepared students.
The college also is pursuing increased funding through federal grants
and the MATC Foundation. In addition, the college’s decision to aggressively
repay its Wisconsin Retirement System liability will continue to save
several million dollars in upcoming years.
Myren
notes that college administration also “empowered our union-management
benefits committee to redesign our employee health insurance plan. The
committee’s work, which shifted some costs to our employees, will
save the college about $1.4 million compared to last year. The plan redesign
will reap significant and continued lower expenses in the future compared
to the projected skyrocketing costs of our former plan.”
While
these savings have been significant, they already have been “booked”
into MATC’s current year budget. “So,” cautions Myren,
“if the tax levy freeze passes, a new round of contingency planning
recommendations will need to be enacted and these will include cuts in
service levels, suspension of some programs and decreases to our scheduled
classes.”
Students
likely to be most affected by potential cuts are those already on waiting
lists. Currently, about 1,700 students are waiting for seats to open up
in more than 20 programs. More than half of MATC’s programs with
current waiting lists are in the health field, including nursing, radiography
and clinical lab technician. Others include fire protection, auto technician,
graphic design, architectural technology and barber/cosmetology. “These
individuals have been very patient but if our ability to levy the property
tax is frozen, their paths to a new career may be frozen, too. The number
of students on wait lists likely will grow and their waits may be longer,”
explains Myren.
“In addition, businesses won’t be able to fill in-demand positions
with new graduates and as a result they won’t be able to meet customer
needs and their sales and our overall economy will suffer. And, each of
us may have problems in getting medical treatment or appointments scheduled,
fire emergency calls responded to, our cars repaired or even a good haircut
when we want it.”
In the
future, students similar to Dawn Toth may not be able to report as quickly
on such positive retraining experiences gained at MATC. Toth was laid
off from the Parker Pen Company in November 1999. She took positive action
to retrain for a new career and sought out special funding to help her
enroll in MATC’s popular Architectural Technician Program, which
had a short wait list. Toth completed liberal studies classes toward her
associate degree her first semester, and moved off the wait list and into
the program her second semester.
She graduated
in 2002, and the best news is that her period of unemployement was shorter
than she expected since she landed a job in her new field even before
she graduated. “MATC helped me train for a new career that pays better
and is more satisfying than any other work I’ve done," she states.
"The instructors and services at MATC were there for me when I really
needed them and my instructors still are there for me now.”
In April,
Toth participated in a panel discussion that was part of a free day-long
seminar MATC hosted to help laid-off workers. “This type of special
assistance for helping displaced employees gain access to career information
also may be a service the college will not be able to continue if severe
budget cuts are required,” notes Myren.
In addition,
MATC’s workplace literacy education services, which provide basic
skills education, high school completion programs and English As a Second
Language classes, rely on state funding and may be at risk. In each of
the last two years, the college expanded its offering of these services
to nearly 800 individuals and 12 instructional sites, up from 266 and
5 sites in the year 2000. “With demand growing steadily, it would
be a real disservice to our community to reduce workplace literacy education
such as our GED and ESL instruction,” states Myren.
Other
college plans that may be threatened by reduced state funding include
the pursuit and development of emerging programs, such as programs designed
to support homeland security initiatives. One such program involves the
training of Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT). Also under exploration
is curriculum in DNA forensics to help train sexual assault nurse examiners.
In addition, the college is pursuing planned and expanded nursing programs
that will include outreach to underserved rural communities.
The State
Budget passed by the Legislature would freeze MATC’s operational
tax levy increase at 2.6 percent for three years. The governor has not
indicated yet whether he will veto the measure. “For any students
or community residents concerned about the potential of reduced services
at MATC, I urge you to contact your legislators now and express you concerns
about the proposed freeze on the tax levy,” concludes Myren.
MATC
is one of the largest of the Wisconsin Technical College System’s
16 colleges. It provides a comprehensive curriculum of technical, liberal
arts and science, adult basic education and life enrichment studies and
activities, as well as customized employee training. MATC serves approximately
50,000 individuals each year and provides training in more than 100 career
programs. It awards associate degrees, vocational diplomas and certificates,
and offers non-degree courses. The college serves all or parts of 12 counties
located in south-central Wisconsin and offers instruction through five
campuses and various other locations throughout the district.
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Last
Modified:
July 16, 2003
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