LANSING ? The Michigan House Appropriations Community Colleges Subcommittee reported a budget bill for the state’s 28 community colleges that includes denial of performance funding for those colleges that extend or renew labor contracts before the right-to-work law takes effect.
HB 4212 , which passed 3-2 on party lines, creates a new prerequisite for receiving performance funding, which would provide a 2 percent increase. The college must not have extended or renewed a contract between December and March unless the college receives a 10 percent overall savings.
The renewed contract also cannot last longer than the agreement it replaces, the contract that is renewed must expire before September 30 and the contract cannot exclusively contain a union security provision. A college could have a contract in conflict with the first two provisions as long as it meets the 10 percent savings requirement.
The bill otherwise retains the current formula for receiving performance funding, rather than accepting Governor Rick Snyder’s recommendation to include local strategic value requirements in the formula.
The subcommittee also chose to take out the $1.1 million to support the Michigan Community College Association Virtual Learning Collaborative. The collaborative would allow students to take more online classes from other community colleges when a class is full or unavailable at their primary institution.
Rep. Adam Zemke (D-Ann Arbor) offered amendments to restore the $1.1 million and to take out the contract requirement. Both were defeated along party lines.
Rep. Paul Muxlow (R-Brown City), chair of the subcommittee, said the online collaborative funding could possibly be reinstated after legislators and the Snyder administration sort out the Medicaid expansion and transportation funding issues. Muxlow also said Macomb Community College is the only college he knows of that could possibly lose funding under the contract requirement.
“Right now these contract negotiations are going on legally,” Zemke said. “We should respect the law.”
The penalty is much less severe than the 15 percent cut the Appropriations Higher Education Subcommittee voted to impose on universities executing similar contracts.
Mike Hansen, president of the Michigan Community College Association, said overall he was pleased with the budget. He said it was “unfortunate” the $1.1 million was taken out for the online learning collaborative, but he is hopeful it will be restored.
“It would really ramp up our online presence,” he said.
Hansen also said Macomb Community College, the only college to have entered a labor contract recently, most likely would not be affected by the contract requirement. He said he thinks the college has achieved at least 10 percent savings.
The bill also maintained Snyder’s recommendation on adding General Fund revenue and expenditure projections along with reporting debt obligations onto the college’s website. The bill retains a prohibition on colleges from using state funds for construction or maintenance, which Snyder recommended deleting.
The governor also recommended deleting cost containment initiatives encouraging colleges to evaluate and pursue efficiency; the House’s bill retains this measure.
Overall, the budget is $334.8 million ($137.3 million General Fund), a 13.9 percent increase (42.2 percent General Fund) from the current year budget. The bill is $1.1 million less than the governor’s recommendation.
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