By Michael Rutschky
Published on October 24, 2007
Governor Charles Crist has recently signed a bill that will increase the tuition for students of PJC starting in the spring semester. The bill calls for a 5% tuition increase, which adds up to about $3 per credit hour.
The bill also calls for a 4% budget cut for PJC’s budget. However, due to non-recurrent funds that were appropriated for the state budget but never spent, the school’s budget will only need to be cut by about 2%. Unfortunately the economy of the state is not improving, and PJC’s budget may see more cuts next year without the non-recurrent funds to cushion the blow.
Crist had vetoed a similar bill last summer, feeling that the citizens of Florida were already paying too much in taxes. This time the Governor passed the full bill without feeling a need to veto any section of it.
The budget cuts were established by the State Senate and the House of Representatives in special sessions that were held early last month due to a 1.5 billion dollar state deficit.
Regardless of any cuts to the budget that may occur, students should not be concerned about the increase of any other fees or costs on campus.
“We’re not going to nickel and dime our students,” said Larry Bracken, the college government affairs director.