Published: June 26, 2007 12:20 am      

PJC president reponds to governor's veto

After Texas Gov. Rick Perry recently vetoed $154 million in community college funding, officials with Paris Junior College said Monday that they were blindsided by the veto.

If the $154 million veto stands, PJC employees would be the first to feel the veto directly in the form of a $1.3 million budget cut in money that was earmarked for employee health insurance.

“This is a misguided action and an example of misaligned public policy that reaches an all-time low in undermining access to higher education in Texas,” said PJC President Dr. Pamela Anglin in a statement released early Monday morning.

Anglin said, however, that at this time the veto will not directly affect the tuition rate for the upcoming semester.

However, if it stands, in the future, the veto could squeeze student’s pocketbooks in the form of an $18 per credit hour increase if the state does not intervene, Anglin said in the statement.

“Tuition will not be increased this fall,” Anglin said. “If we don’t get any release from the state, however, we will have to increase the tuition significantly for the 2008-09 year.

According to Anglin’s statement, student tuition could possibly increase from $35 to $53 for in-district and from $65 to $83 for out-of-district — an increase Anglin says that could stop students from seeking higher education.

“This type of increase would prohibit many people in the area we serve from being able to attend PJC,” Anglin said in her statement. “This veto not only punishes the employees of the community colleges across the state but punishes students of many different ages, races and socio-economic backgrounds.”

Anglin met with all PJC faculty and staff Monday morning via the college’s ITV system to talk candidly about the veto.

According to Anglin, the veto also cost the college $276,000 in new campus funding, which was to go toward helping to start construction on the new Greenville campus.

Anglin also said PJC will not be able to recover from a funding cut because of a tax rate cap.

“We would have to increase tuition by $18 per credit hour or raise taxes in the district to 29 cents, which we can’t do because our tax rate has a cap of 27 cents.”

Anglin also addressed Perry’s claims that community colleges are falsifying appropriations.

“This is absolutely wrong,” Anglin said. “I can assure you that PJC didn’t falsify its budget request in any way.”

State Representative Mark Homer (D-Paris) also spoke to all the PJC campuses. Both Homer and Anglin encouraged college employees to send handwritten letters to state officials in an effort to get the funding reinstated for PJC.

Anglin said that community colleges drive the economic development in communities throughout Texas.

“This veto places the services we provide to our constituency in jeopardy and will negatively impact access and opportunity,” Anglin said. “When the state lowers its support of higher education students, businesses and communities pay the price.”