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Schools

Moraine Valley's 2012 Budget Relies Less on State, More on Tuition Dollars

Operating revenues and expenses increase 11 percent this year.

In spite of mounting pressures from the state, local tax appeals and enrollment, seems to have smoothly navigated fiscal waters without reduction in faculty, staff or services for another year.

College trustees approved a budget for fiscal year 2012 on Wednesday. Operating fund revenue and expenditures are slated at $79,906,515—an increase of about 11 percent over the 2011 operating fund of $72,061,391, partly the result of .

Steady dips in state funding have forced the school to rely more on tuition. In 2008, for instance, tuition dollars accounted for 45 percent of the school’s revenue stream; today tuition accounts for 55 percent, Moraine Valley chief financial officer Robert Sterkowitz said.

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The number of student heads on campus has increased 4.5 percent this semester, though the number of students taking credit courses has dropped slightly. Some of Moraine Valley’s training programs are weighted between credit and non-credit courses, which President Vernon O. Crawley cited for potentially throwing off the data. Nevertheless, he said, student financial aid is becoming harder to attain and could have factored into the equation.

State funds, on-campus sources and mostly local property taxes complete the school’s sources of operating revenue. At about 59 percent, or $47 million, the greatest proportion of operating costs goes toward salaries. Union personnel asked for a 3-percent raise in their contracts, Sterkowitz said.

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“You try to keep up with that and the state can’t keep up with its share. So of course the extra burden falls on our need to raise tuition if we want to maintain the level of service we provide,” he said.

What’s more, the owners of Orland Square Mall have . They argue that they paid more than their fair share of taxes between 2005 and 2008. If they win that case, Moraine Valley would have to forfeit about $400,000 in upcoming property tax payments.

Every year the school supplements a portion of the arts center and athletic programs and other auxiliary expenses which are supposed to be self-sustaining, with operating revenue transfers. As it stands, about $1 million has been set aside to help fund these programs.

All told, the school is expecting about $125 million in revenue, while the total expenditures are slated near $139 million. Sterkowitz said the difference is mostly from capital improvement projects and a bond sale from a 2006 and 2007 referendum, the proceeds of which have gone toward the college's expansion project in Tinley Park and on-campus remodeling and building initiatives.

Updated at 4:42 p.m. with a clarification to the way in which the arts center and athletic programs are funded. 

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