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2014-2015 Review of Accomplishments
Operating Budget Submission
for five of the last seven years, Suffolk County has asked the College to formulate its
operating budget without providing any increase in the County’s contribution. During
this period, i have charged the College’s administration to be fiscally prudent, including
taking actions such as: holding the line on purchasing and maintaining a restrictive hiring
practice; monitoring enrollment and expenses to yield efficiencies; renegotiating collective
bargaining agreements; tracking the number of sections offered each semester; and
managing its master schedule. rough these efforts, the College has ended each fiscal
year with a balanced budget. we have accomplished this by implementing very tight controls,
and we have shared with the County that such effort is not sustainable indefinitely.
e College finished the 2013-2014 fiscal year with a surplus that was returned to the
College’s reserve fund. e Board of Trustees authorized $4.3 million from reserves to
be used to balance the 2014-2015 operating budget. i directed College administration
to continue its practice of prudent fiscal management and close monitoring of expenses.
while we will not close the books on 2014-2015 until the fall, we are trending toward
ending the year with a small budget surplus at this time.
2015-2016 operating Budget
e allocation of budgetary resources is closely tied to the College’s Strategic Plan
and institutional Goals. Planning and program assessment guide the establishment
of budgetary priorities. our operating Budget continues to be under considerable
pressure, due to projected cost increases related to employee pensions, healthcare,
contractual salary agreements and the operation of new buildings. we also anticipate
future reductions in the number of graduating high school students, increased costs
to maintain an aging infrastructure, and – without a new arrangement – revenue
shortfalls caused by reduced or flat State and local sponsor contributions.
Given that our budget model projects increases in costs and the potential for the
leveling-off of enrollment, i directed College departments to submit “no growth”
budgets for the 2015-2016 fiscal year that assumed zero-percent increases over the
total bottom line funding provided for each unit during the 2014-2015 academic
year. exceptions to the no-growth scenario were: 1) costs associated with new
facilities, 2) enhanced assessment efforts to align College operations with the
Comprehensive Assessment Plan for institutional effectiveness (CAPie) and the
College’s Strategic Plan, and 3) programmatic impacts as a result of assessment efforts
to achieve institutional goals.
e College’s 2015-2016 operating budget request totaled $215 million, an increase
of $6.8 million or 3.3% over the prior year’s budget. e increase was directly related
to: 1) a $2.3 million increase in employee benefits, of which $2 million was to cover
additional health insurance costs due to an increase in the County plan’s rates, 2) $3.7
million in personal services for contractual salary related expenses, and 3) increased
costs related to the operation of the new william J. Lindsay Life Sciences Building,
which opened for classes this past spring.
To support this request, the adopted New York State 2015-2016 budget provided an
increase in State Base Aid per full Time equivalent (fTe) student of $100 per fTe.
is translated to $2 million in additional revenue for Suffolk County Community
College. To ensure that the College operates with a structurally balanced budget that
contains sufficient recurring revenue to meet recurring expenses, the Board of Trustees
submitted a budget request to the County that included an annual tuition increase of
$180 that brought full-time annual tuition to $4,570; authorized a transfer of over
e college community is updated about the budget process
through Town Hall meetings at each campus.
