ANSING – Community college officials said Thursday they understand that the state has no additional money for them, but they said they should be allowed to manage those cuts or freezes and not be told by the state what to cut.

College officials took aim at the Senate Republican plan to cut all public employee wages – which would include community college employees – by 5 percent (SJR U ) and require those employees to contribute at least 20 percent toward the cost of their health insurance (SJR P , SB 1046 , SB 1047 ).

Mandating colleges to freeze tuition or cut wages or health care makes it more difficult for community colleges to negotiate other efficiencies and program changes, presidents of various institutions told the Senate Appropriations Community Colleges Subcommittee.

“Consider the intent of the legislation that created our colleges,” said Tim Nelson, president of Northwestern Michigan Community College. “Recent proposals by (the Legislature) threaten that desire to be the best hope. It kind of kills our ability to innovate.”

Cameron Brunet-Koch, president of North Central Michigan College, said her institution has already taken steps to cut health care costs by determining how best to use health care through a task force study. “Their approach was very strategic. Five years from now what do we want the health of our employees to look like? And we’re not just talking about our health care provider,” she said. “Then how are we going to get there?”

The group is now working with the insurer to determine what the proposed wellness program could mean for premiums for non-instructional personnel (professors did not participate) down the road, Brunet-Koch said.

Sen. Bill Hardiman (R-Kentwood), chair of the subcommittee, said some requirements for cost reductions would be coming, given the condition of the state budget. “We’re still looking at a variety of proposals for reforms, which we just need to do,” he said.

And Hardiman said the proposal the colleges are opposing, developed by Senate Republicans to require a 5 percent cut in all public employee wages as well as reductions in health care costs, would consider cuts institutions had made in prior years.

And Sen. Valde Garcia (R-Howell) said community colleges may be among the few that have looked at strategic cost cuts. “How would you suggest that we go about seeing that others in the public sector do what you already doing?” he said.

The college leaders all committed to developing proposals to assist with the budget as a whole as well as the community colleges budget.

But that budget also has to bring back the Michigan Promise Scholarship, said Jackson Community College President Daniel Thelen. He said many of those attending JCC are low-income and at-risk students.

“They need that funding up front,” Thelen said. “Waiting for two years after they graduate does not help them.”

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

a>>