Although individual amounts have not yet been determined, budget cuts announced by Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens on Monday will have an effect on the current and future budgets for North Central Missouri College.
In an effort to balance state finances, Gov. Greitens has announced state budget cuts of $146 million, including nearly $68 million in core funding for public universities and community colleges.
NCMC President Dr. Lenny Klaver said that community colleges will be hit to the tune of around $12 million which, while it doesn’t seem like a large amount compared to other cuts, will have a significant effect on all community college budgets and, in particular, NCMC.
“We weren’t really surprised by the announcement,” Dr. Klaver said. “Gov. Greitens came into a situation where he needed to make some cuts in order to balance the state budget. What we have to do now is look at the numbers and try to decide what is our next course of action.”
Representatives of the Missouri Community College Association, of which NCMC is a member, met by tele-conference on Monday to discuss the situation. It will also be discussed by members of the NCMC President’s Cabinet during a meeting this morning.
“We’ll be taking a look at a lot of different things,” Dr. Klaver said, adding budget cuts for the college would likely need to be an option. “NCMC operates on a bare-bones budget the way it is, so we have to look at other sources of revenue to help make up for what we will be losing by this cut.”
One of those sources is the institution of new programming, which Dr. Klaver and the staff have already began exploring.
“Whether its new programs, fundraising or working on increasing our enrollment, we need to look at all avenues available to us to help meet the financial challenges we are facing,” he said.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
