The upcoming budget season will be an uncertain one for Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC).
"As we are going to enter this General Assembly session, I would say the mood on the budget is uncertainty and apprehension," PVCC President Frank Friedman told the college’s board yesterday.
Friedman said that the uncertainty comes from not knowing what priorities and budget decisions Governor-elect Bob McDonnell will put forth.
Furthermore, Friedman said that because the stimulus money for this year is a "temporary infusion" of funds (PVCC will receive $1 million), "that’s slated to be gone in two years. So, if nothing were to change other than the fact that we’ll lose that money in two years, that’s about a 7 percent budget cut just like that."
But the chance that nothing will change is slim.
According to the proposed budget Governor Kaine released before the holidays, there would likely be no additional cuts this year (or, if any, they would be minimal and managable), but the second year of the biennium would be another story.
Friedman estimates that PVCC would face “significant” cuts—as much as 10 or 15 percent.
"For the first time since I’ve been at PVCC, since 1999, we are receiving this year less than $3,000 per full-time equivalent student in state funds," he said. In 2006, the state contributed approximately $4,000 per student.
According to Friedman, some of the difference is an actual drop in state money, but "some of that is an increase in enrollment," he said.
In this year’s general budget, Friedman told the board, PVCC will receive 50 percent of the funds from student tuition; 44 percent from the state; and 6 percent from federal stimulus money.
"When I arrived in ’99, 78 percent came from the state. We are now at 44 percent," said Friedman.
For more on PVCC’s previous budget cuts, click here.
