Perry’s veto undermines Texas higher education

Published or Revised June 25, 2007

"Governor Rick Perry's veto of $154 million in community college funding 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." Paris Junior College President Dr. Pamela Anglin made that statement Monday as she spoke at an employee and public meeting to address the issue and how it will affect PJC and its employee health insurance. The veto would effectively eliminate $1,278,367 that would fund college employee group health insurance in 2008-2009. In addition, the college lost $276,000 in new campus funding to help start the Greenville campus. "The governor accused community colleges of falsifying appropriations, but that is absolutely wrong," Dr. Anglin said. "I can assure you that PJC didn't falsify its budget request in any way. We don't do that." Dr. Anglin addressed the question of how PJC can recover from such an enormous cut by Gov. Perry. "We can't," she said. "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." Dr. Anglin said PJC is joining the other community colleges in Texas in an effort to defeat this "travesty." She encouraged everyone to write letters to the governor opposing his action. State Representative Mark Homer (D-Paris) told the audience that included Paris, Sulphur Springs and Greenville campus employees, retirees and visitors that he was at a loss to understand the governor's veto. "To me, this is unacceptable," said Homer. "It is wrong on so many levels and sends a message that we don't support a higher education system that educates more than half of our college students and trains our Texas workforce." Homer encouraged college employees and the public to write and send handwritten letters to Governor Perry, the Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House encouraging them to reinstate the funding for PJC and the other 49 community college districts in Texas. "It can be reinstated," he said. "We need to convince the Legislative Budget Board to recommend that the governor fix the problem he has created," he said. Dr. Anglin pointed out that community colleges drive the economic development in communities throughout Texas, and this veto of funds places those services in jeopardy and will negatively impact access and opportunity. "When the state lowers its support of higher education, students, businesses and communities pay the price," she said. "Tuition and local property taxes go up, access to higher education goes down, fewer people are trained, fewer companies expand into Texas, and Texas economy suffers." Meanwhile, Dr. Anglin said that while working on next year's budget, Paris Junior College will not make significant changes and "will work on the expectation that this veto will be righted."