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The general fund cuts amount to about $4.2 million. The proposed plan still is being reviewed by the college’s Budget Committee, before it goes to the Board of Education.
Lane Community College administrators are proposing a general fund budget of about $113.1 million for the next academic year but warned members of its Budget Committee that LCC’s expenses are outpacing revenue.
“So that means that our budget is really tight,” Jonathon Campbell, LCC’s senior director of budgets, grants and planning, told committee members Wednesday, May 6. “There’s not a lot of flexibility and maneuverability there.”
The school’s proposed budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year for all funds is about $281.4 million. (The fiscal year runs from this coming July 1 to June 30, 2027.) The general fund pays for most of the school’s operational costs, such as salaries, materials and supplies.
The $113.1 million proposal is a 1.6% increase over the $111.3 million general fund projected for the end of this academic year.
Personnel costs in FY 2027 are projected to make up about 79% of the general fund, with about $1.8 million more allocated for full-time faculty and an additional $1 million going to part-time faculty.
The proposed budget also includes cuts of about $4.2 million, including the elimination of degree programs in criminal justice and health information management. Those cuts include the loss of about 23 full-time equivalent positions.
The proposal does not include pulling any money from the college’s ending fund balance — its reserves — to balance the books.
The $4.2 million in cuts are part of a three-year plan to trim spending at LCC by about $9.2 million. The goal is to return the college’s ending fund balance to a level equal to about 10% of the general fund, as required by board policy. The proposed budget projects an ending fund balance at the end of fiscal year 2027 of about 6.2%.
“So, long story short, (in) fiscal ’27, we’re working hard to break even,” Campbell said.
On revenue, LCC is planning a tuition increase of 1.2% per credit hour, and an “optimistic” 2% increase in enrollment credit hours, Campbell said. State funding is expected to remain steady through the 2026-27 school year, and LCC expects a 3% or so boost in property taxes.
Overall, Campbell said, annual evenue growth overall is about 4.8%, but expenses are growing by about 5.1%.
Budget Committee members asked questions about the college’s lengthy list of deferred maintenance needs. Estimates put the cost of fixing all of LCC’s deferred maintenance at anywhere from $100 million to $200 million. Kara Flath, LCC’s vice president for finance and operations, noted that work is underway on a plan to address some of those maintenance issues. One of the goals of the three-year mitigation plan is to free money to spend on deferred maintenance.
The committee resumes its work Wednesday with a 5 p.m. meeting in the LCC Boardroom.
Board members get budget update
A meeting of LCC’s Board of Education followed the Budget Committee meeting Wednesday and included a budget update for the current school year.
Campbell told board members that an estimated budget shortfall for this year has grown from about $804,000 to about $977,000 at the end of March, LCC’s third quarter. Campbell said much of the increase is due to lower revenue estimates from tuition and property taxes; in addition, LCC officials have said that savings from vacant positions have been about half of what was budgeted.
The board earlier had agreed to close $400,000 of the gap by using money from its ending fund balance and make another $400,000 in spending cuts, but as the size of the shortfall has increased, LCC has imposed a general fund spending freeze and may need to take additional action as fourth-quarter estimates firm up.
Public comment recommendations
After a spirited discussion, board members returned a set of recommendations about public-comment policies back to the subcommittee that had drafted it.
The board had charged the subcommittee — made up of Vice Chair Jerry Rust, Kevin Alltucker and Jesse Maldonado — with reviewing the policies after a series of meetings that included as much as two hours of public comment. Devoting that time meant that the board was unable to turn its attention to other matters until much later in its meetings.
“We tried to balance this idea of a healthy public comment process with the ability of the board to complete its business,” Alltucker said.
Among the recommendations — and the one that triggered the most debate — was one to set a “time cap” for public comment during meetings. The Eugene City Council sets such a time limit on public comment in its meetings.
Board Chair Austin Fölnagy was against that.
“I don’t necessarily think that we are going to be serving the populace, the people, if we continue to add additional restrictions to public comment,” he said.
Board members will send suggestions for revisions to the ad hoc committee, and the full board will review the recommendations at a later meeting.
Other action
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, the Board of Education:
- Approved new associate of arts transfer degrees in two programs — communication and psychology. The idea is to allow students taking classes in both programs to easily transfer to a four-year institution to pursue bachelor’s degrees.
- Appointed James C. Arnold as a member of the Budget Committee. Arnold has worked in leadership positions at colleges in California and Oregon and was employed by the chancellor’s office of the Oregon University System in a role in which he worked with community colleges. In retirement, he has held part-time appointments at LCC and served with the Lane Community College Employee Association, the faculty union and on LCC’s Budget Development Subcommittee.
- Delayed until its June meeting a decision on whether to create another ad hoc committee that would seek to review board policies. Board member Zachary Mulholland said the committee’s goal would be to identify board policies that seem vague or which might contradict other policies.
