Moria Dailey
Published: April 26, 2006
“The legislature did a great job for the community college system,” Tom Delaino, PJC president, said of the budget that was decided upon by the Florida Senate and House of Representatives.
As mentioned in an article in the April 26 issue of The Corsair, PJC officials were concerned with the college’s allocation of funding if the Senate’s proposed budget were passed. The Senate’s budget proposed only a two percent increase for PJC, while the House’s budget proposed a four percent increase.
In the end, PJC got about a 3.89 percent increase, about $32.9 million dollars, according to a legislative report produced by Larry Bracken, executive director of governmental affairs at PJC.
“That’s the best we could have hoped for with the enrollment situation we’ve had over the last few years,” Delaino said. PJC has suffered a dramatic drop in enrollment in the past two years.
The final budget included a 2.5 percent tuition increase; the House’s proposed budget had called for a three percent increase while the Senate’s had called for no increase.
“Honestly, the college was hoping for a five percent increase,” Bracken said. “If it’s only 2.5 percent now, it will be 7.5 percent down the road, instead of five percent, making up for it.”
WSRE, located on PJC’s Pensacola Campus, received a five percent increase in funding, the first in years, according to Bracken’s report.
Also provided for in the budget are students who came to Florida community colleges and universities following Hurricane Katrina. Immediately following Katrina, Governor Jeb Bush issued an executive order that students who came to colleges and universities in Florida due to Katrina would be granted out-of-state tuition waivers.
Those orders expired in February 2006. However, in the new budget, out-of-state fee waivers are extended to all students who have been continuously enrolled in Florida colleges and universities.
That extension is in effect until June 30, 2007, as is the entire budget.