Despite governor's veto, KC tax rate remains unchanged

Despite the threats of raising tax rates to offset educational cuts by Gov. Rick Perry the Kilgore College tax rate remains unchanged for 2007.

Duane McNaney, vice president of administrative services for Kilgore College said the KC board of trustees voted Tuesday night to keep KC's tax rate the same as it was last year. "The tax rate was adopted at 16.4 cents per $100 in property valuations," said McNaney.

McNaney said tax bills go out in October and the new tax rate would be for funds collected starting in January 2008. "Even with the tax rate remaining the same it would generate a 7.5 percent increase in revenue over last year due to increased property valuations," said McNaney.

Community college officials in the past have said they will consider property tax increases to compensate for $154 million in funds vetoed by Perry.

Dr. Bill Holda, president of Kilgore College, was among those college officials making their case for restoring the funding at a hearing of the Senate Higher Education Subcommittee earlier in the year. Perry aides said the governor supports more funding for the colleges, but testimony showed that providing the funds could be complicated.

In June, Perry vetoed the funding, which was meant to cover health insurance costs for community college employees, because he and college leaders disagree how the costs should be split between the state and local taxpayers and students.

Perry has said that lawmakers put provisions into the budget forbidding use of state money for benefits of employees whose salaries are paid with local money.

College officials have argued that the proposal was a fair request and that the state hasn't met its funding obligations for community colleges systems.

To deal with the veto, Holda has said Kilgore College would have to either cut programs or raise tuition by as much as $15 per credit hour and property taxes to the maximum allowable if the issue is not resolved.

To address the problem, Perry's aides proposed adding $200 million or more for community colleges. They said $92 million should be spent on health insurance, and the rest for performance incentives, technology grants or other programs.

Legislative Budget Board staff members said a change in budget rules means the vetoed money is off limits until January 2009. They said lawmakers would have to shift money from some other agency to pay for college employees' health insurance, and then repay the affected agency through a supplemental budget bill.