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The two budget bills for the 2011-2013 fiscal year currently in the legislature both contain annual cuts of roughly 15 percent to the Community and Technical College (CTC) system.
The recently passed budgets include significant tuition hikes for the next two years to offset cuts to colleges, but they differ slightly on the exact percentage. The House proposed an annual 11 percent increase, 1 percent lower than the 12 proposed by the Senate.
These tuition increases would bring down the net cut to colleges to anywhere from 4 to 8 percent, depending on which budget provisions become law. A 4 percent cut represents roughly $1 million in funding for Green River.
A 10 percent cut was proposed in Governor Gregoire's budget, which dates from December of last year. After a disappointing revenue forecast late March, which was $700 million lower than expected, it was clear that number was going to turn out higher.
The budgets proposed by both the House and the Senate hover around a 15 percent cut per year for the next biennium.
How and if students will be impacted will differ per college - different circumstances, such as a high number of international students, make it easier for some colleges, including Green River, to absorb the cuts without stringent measures.
Others are not that lucky. Shoreline Community College, for instance, had to turn down 300 students this quarter and its administration predicted it would have to keep doing so in the near future. It is also laying off 11 faculty members and several administrators this year.
At Green River, no similar measures are currently being discussed, according to an administration spokesperson.
The college recently announced the closing of its Enumclaw campus during summer quarter, and it will stop mailing a quarterly schedule to area residents and distributing college catalogs to students. These measures are expected to save the college approximately $150,000.
The college has been careful not to preliminarily rule out any options, though, repeatedly saying nothing, including layoffs and limiting enrollment - although it is not currently being talked about - is off the table.
There are several significant differences between the two budgets now on the table. The Senate version includes additional funding for the Worker Retraining program, of which Green River would get $1.1 million, and a 3 percent cut to all state employee salaries. The House budget contains neither of those.
These and other differences, such as the tuition increase, are expected to be resolved around April 24, the end of the legislative session.
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