NMC Trustees to consider 2008-09 tuition

NMC Trustees to consider 2008-09 tuition

TRAVERSE CITY, MI – NMC Trustees are reviewing a draft budget for 2008-09 that includes a 5.5 percent tuition increase for in-district students effective for the fall 2008 semester.

The draft budget also includes a $214,000 reduction in health benefits for NMC employees.

Trustees discussed the proposed budget at their April 21 meeting. Final action on tuition and fees is expected when the Board meets on April 28. The meeting, which is open to the public, is at 6:30 p.m. in the Oleson Center on NMC’s Main Campus. Final action on the proposed 2008-09 budget is anticipated in June.

Current and proposed tuition rates are as follows:
(If these columns do not display properly in this e-mail, you can also read this release online at http://www.nmc.edu/news/2008/042408-trustees-consider-tuition.html)

Fiscal 08 Fiscal 09 Change
(current)
In-district $73.40 $77.40 5.5%
In-state, out-of-district $132.00 $142.00 7.5%
Out-of-state $164.00 $180.40 10.0%

The proposed budget also eliminates the graduation fee, and increases the student health fee by $2. Other fees remain unchanged.

The reductions in employee health benefits resulted after NMC Trustees asked that the college review that aspect of the budget. Without changes to the health benefits plan, NMC’s cost in this budget line would have increased more than 15 percent. With the changes, health benefits costs are expected to increase 2.59 percent.

“We appreciate the difficult work done by employees, particularly NMC’s Benefits Advisory Committee, to arrive at these recommendations,” NMC Board Chair Walter “Jay” Hooper said. “No one wants to increase the cost of benefits, but we also need to do what we can to minimize tuition increases.”

The average NMC employee currently pays 15 percent of his or her health expenses. With the changes, based on new deductibles and co-pays, the average employee will pay 17-19 percent of their health expenses. The additional cost to the average employee would be $800 annually.

Without the $214,000 reduction in benefits, in-district tuition would need to be increased 8.5 percent.

NMC’s proposed general fund budget for 2008-09 is $36 million. Tuition and fees account for 46 percent of the revenue. Property taxes from Grand Traverse County provide 26 percent of NMC’s general fund revenue, and state aid accounts for 24 percent.
As recently as 2002-03, state aid accounted for 35 percent of the budget.

“NMC during the last several years has absorbed reductions in state aid yet served more people – all with minimal tuition increases,” President Timothy J. Nelson said. “NMC employees deserve great credit for finding ways to operate more efficiently, which has kept tuition rates and increases far below that of the four-year schools with whom we compete.”

Nelson also noted that private giving to the NMC Foundation allows the college to award more financial aid to more students than any other community college in Michigan.

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Paul Heaton
Director of Public Relations