(0:00 - 0:12)
It is 432, so call the workshop to order. Public comment, do we have any public comment? We do not, Mr. Chairman. All right.

(0:16 - 0:25)
Then, Annette, we'll turn it over to you to lead us in this. Well, you have something to present to us? No. Good.

(0:26 - 0:38)
And this is going to be a real short meeting. Why am I here so early? I'm OK with that. Why am I here? You can't make the president laugh, it'll hurt her voice.

(0:38 - 1:05)
OK, so you may recall, we met back in February to talk about what our budget priorities were going to be for this budget year. And this is what we had presented and what was approved at the February 15th meeting. We wanted to make sure that we funded the Vision 2028 initiatives.

(1:06 - 1:32)
We wanted to institutionalize First Time Free at Lee. We've been coming to you every semester asking for that approval, and we just want to get it approved until we can't do it anymore, for whatever reason. Maintenance facilities, budgeting somewhere between 2% and 4% of our aggregate replacement value.

(1:33 - 1:55)
Continue to focus on board reserves and make sure that we are within our college policy. Continue to look at salaries. And also continue to look at our tuition and fee rates and make sure that we are compatible with the Gulf Coast schools.

(1:57 - 2:14)
Still looking at the name storm coverage. Still looking to continue the strategy of paying down bond debt. And then, obviously, the big topic of discussion would be our tax rate.

(2:15 - 2:37)
So the meeting tonight is really going to be focused on the revenue side of the equation. We are still in the process of meeting with all the departments throughout campus to find out what their budgetary needs are for this next year. We have not completed that process yet.

(2:38 - 3:10)
And so tonight, we'll be talking about revenue and how revenue may or may not change for the next budget year. If we look at what our budget has done consistently over the past few years, we all know that we had a big jump in our budget this year relating to the large increase in state funding that we got. And so that's kind of where we're starting from.

(3:11 - 3:41)
When we look at our revenue projections for tuition and fees, we are not asking for any change in our tuition and fee rates for in-district, out-of-district, or non-resident. We do anticipate that we will see our waivers go up a little bit with the full implementation of the FAST program. We did not fully implement that in the current year.

(3:41 - 3:50)
We opted out during the fall term. We did implement in the spring. So we do anticipate that that number will go up.

(3:51 - 4:21)
And so on our projected budget, basically, we're taking our actual, our projected actual amounts for tuition and fee revenue. And I think I've communicated with you guys that we're pretty close to what we have budgeted for those amounts. And so that's going to be our proposed projected budget for 2025 for tuition and fees.

(4:22 - 4:57)
For state appropriations, we received notice, and I think Dr. V shared this notice with you, that right now they are estimating that we will receive an additional $1.6 million in our funding from state. But there's lots of caveats that come along with that increase. First caveat, there will be an updated amount that will be given to us in June.

(4:58 - 5:31)
So this amount could or could not change. Right now, we're not anticipating that it will, but they have left that door open saying that it could. The other thing is, these are funds that the funding model now is based on a lot of estimates, a lot of projections, right? And so we have projections for 2024, projections for this next year of what 2025 is going to be.

(5:32 - 6:05)
Then there's going to be a settle up period. And so if what they projected, if we do not meet what they have projected, and there is an adjustment that is needed to true those numbers up, then one of two things is going to happen. Either if it's on the positive, they will send us those additional funds, but that will not happen until the following February.

(6:05 - 6:37)
If we did not meet those, then they will deduct it from our first October allocation. Sorry to interrupt, but do you know what those forecasted projections are for us? And if you do, how did they look? How do you feel about it? We had a conference call about those today. I don't have a good feeling.

(6:37 - 6:48)
I don't have a feeling one way or the other yet. We're still trying to learn what those are. So at this point, I'm not comfortable in saying that they're good or bad.

(6:49 - 6:55)
But we know what they are. Kind of, yes. But it's also changing.

(6:56 - 7:05)
That's the whole thing about this whole funding model is perpetual. It's changing. They're kind of making it up as we go a little bit.

(7:06 - 7:35)
And so nothing is final. And there'll be like a two-year lag in the true-up from what they are. There'll be like a two-year lag in the whole true-up process.

(7:36 - 7:56)
And that's the reason they're calling it a dynamic funding model is because it is changing every time we go. So once we get the true-up for 2024, all the estimates that they had put in there, they'll go back. They'll put the real 2024 numbers in there.

(7:56 - 8:06)
And they'll recalculate everything and see how we did compared to that. But we're still going to have estimates for 2025. And then when we go into the next year, we'll have estimates for 2026.

(8:07 - 8:28)
And then they'll backfill and put the 2025 real numbers in there. I thought the funding we received was based on previous performance, not projected performance. It's an either or.

(8:29 - 8:43)
They're projecting out into the future. And so it's the better of the two, either how you did or how time on the screen. I'm getting a note here.

(8:43 - 8:47)
Hold on. Yeah, I know. Not very subtle about it, is she? Yeah.

(8:50 - 9:02)
Well, I'm just trying to still understand, just like all of us are, I thought when we were awarded, it was based on prior performance. And so that was done. And we received funding.

(9:03 - 9:18)
But it sounds like there's still forecasts involved and actuals to apply. OK, I'm sorry. I did not hear your comment.

(9:18 - 9:30)
No, I was simply stating that I thought when we received the funding, it was based on past performance, which had already happened. And so we were funded. I understand the funding mechanism will begin to change.

(9:30 - 9:40)
But I don't understand how it would change what we've already gotten if it was based on prior performance. So I get moving forward, there's going to be projections. You have to.

(9:40 - 9:49)
But when it started, I thought it started with actual performance, not expected performance. Unless it was expected based on actual. I don't know.

(9:50 - 10:20)
Yeah. It could have been one or the other, right? It was either the average of the past three years or for the current year, which was not complete. And so Dr. B has let me know that there will be a webinar for trustees next week.

(10:21 - 10:38)
So as we receive notification of when and where that webinar is held, then we will pass that information on to all of you. Yeah. Is this a TAC webinar? Who's putting this on? TAC or T-H-E-C-B.

(10:39 - 10:47)
Is it TAC? I don't know. OK. Yeah, any information is great.

(10:47 - 11:01)
I would just, I'm just trying to, I understand the dynamic. I understand that it's a moving target, which is why, as we talked about to begin with in last year's revenues, to not depend on it every year. That's right.

(11:02 - 11:25)
Right, so. Annette, do they give any indication if they were to take money back? Would it be a drastic take back? Or do they give any parameters of? They put some parameters in place as they are making projections and that sort of thing to where you cannot improve by more than 10%. You cannot decline by more than 5%.

(11:25 - 11:38)
So they're putting some parameters in all of these estimates to try to protect from something like that happening. Stop gaps to keep things from moving too far one way or the other. Exactly.

(11:38 - 12:06)
OK. All right, I just, yeah, thank you. So all that to say, you know, the $1.6 million, we have it now, could be taken back next year if our performance is not equal to what they have predicted that our performance would be.

(12:06 - 12:24)
The whole thing or 5%? Some portion of it. It just depends on how we perform, basically. I thought because there were parameters that you just said couldn't lose more than 5%, I thought, would you not lose more than 5% of the $1.6 or? It'd be of the total allocation.

(12:24 - 12:38)
OK. Total of the performance allocation. So the webinar that Dr. V spoke of is by CAT, and it is next Wednesday at noon.

(12:41 - 12:48)
We'll get more information out to everybody on it. Preferably before Wednesday at noon. OK.

(12:51 - 13:02)
She says we should have gotten something on it. I don't remember, but there were like three different ones that you could sign up for. OK, I don't remember signing up for anything.

(13:03 - 13:08)
But I guess I don't remember seeing it. I think it's on their website. Yeah, I was looking at it.

(13:09 - 13:39)
David will take care of that, and we'll know tomorrow what's going on. What's that? On taxes, current rate, 0.2101. We've received our preliminary valuations. And right now, those valuations have increased in total by a little over $700 million, and that's between both Harris and Chambers County.

(13:40 - 14:09)
So we are expecting a little bit of a bump. If we were to keep our rate the same, and you compare it against what we have actually collected this year, we would see an increase of about $875,000. Workforce, our plan there is to keep the budget flat.

(14:13 - 14:27)
Revenue in lieu of tax, Charlene reached out to Exxon. We have basically two vendors that pay us this in lieu of right now. And Exxon is the major player.

(14:27 - 15:04)
And so she reached out to Exxon, and they were able to give us a pretty good number as to what that amount is going to be for this next year. So rather than budget the average, which is what we've done the past few years, we're going to go ahead and budget that number that we received from Exxon. So that will create an increase of about $400,000 compared to where we are right now, but you can see it's a little over a million compared to what we budgeted last year.

(15:06 - 15:58)
Then when you look at other revenues and interest income, we, again, are going to budget that at current year actual. So all that being said, when you look at what we are projecting for revenue this next year versus where we are in the current year, we're projecting that we'll have about $2.6 million in additional revenue. Looking at our reserve requirements, we have in total $29 million in reserves.

(15:59 - 16:27)
25 of that is board operating, a little over $2 million in insurance, and about $1.8 in capital assets. Just to clarify, our policy on board reserves is only the board operating reserve, does not include the insurance reserve, right? That's correct. OK, so we're talking the $25.6 million is what we have that we count as our four to six month policy? That's correct.

(16:28 - 17:09)
And so right now, if you calculate our reserve as a percent, or as an amount per month, we're at about 4.2 months worth of reserves. Our current budget? Our tuition and fee history, you can, again, we're not asking for any increase in our tuition and fees. This just gives you a little bit of detail on if we have a student going full time, this is roughly what it would cost them to attend.

(17:09 - 17:28)
If they were in district, it would be somewhere between $1,000 and $1,300. If they're out of district, somewhere around $2,000 to $2,400. And if they're a non-resident, somewhere around $2,100 and $2,700, somewhere in that range.

(17:29 - 17:50)
These costs do not include books. And these costs also do not include any of their basic needs, any of their housing, travel, transportation, any of that is not included in these costs. This is strictly tuition and required fees.

(17:50 - 18:13)
I have a question. If they're eligible for Pell Grants, does the Pell Grant help with the other things that you just mentioned beyond tuition? Pell Grant does help. Pell Grant does not cover all of it, right? So right now, to receive full Pell, you have to attend, of course, full time.

(18:13 - 18:28)
And the Pell Award per semester is around $3,600. I keep wanting to put millions in there. But $3,600 is what a full Pell student would receive.

(18:28 - 18:36)
At Lee College. At Lee College. And our tuition's been set since spring of 20.

(18:37 - 18:56)
Is that what that chart said? Well, if we look here, we can see it kind of depends. So in-district has been $59 since 2018. Out of district, it was $2,550.

(18:56 - 19:06)
And then in 2020, we increased it to $130. That's all. And then non-resident has been $148 since 2018.

(19:08 - 19:25)
So the only change that has happened in tuition since I've been here has been that one increase in out of district of $5. You have the fee schedule there? This one? Whatever fees of tuition. And then there's the end fees.

(19:27 - 19:45)
The required fees are right here. The general use fee, student service, tech, registration, international education, and then the student telehealth. The general fee also increased in the fall of 2018.

(19:46 - 19:55)
And it's remained constant. The student service fee has not changed. We added the technology fee in 2018.

(19:55 - 20:23)
And then the registration fee increased in 2017. Where is the fee that covers the bond, 2018 bond? Is that a student fee? I mean, that was a... Oh, the revenue bond? Revenue bond, yeah. Is it part of this general or... It's just part of the... I'd have to go back and read it.

(20:23 - 20:32)
I'm sorry. But it's just the revenue that is collected. Basically, I think all of this.

(20:34 - 20:48)
All fees? Mm-hmm. Is used or is pledged, if you will, to make that bond payment. So we don't have a specific number per hour, credit hour or anything? No.

(20:49 - 20:53)
Okay. Yep. I was just curious how it impacted.

(20:54 - 21:11)
I mean, I don't recall at the time what the impact was to the tuition and fees when we added the revenue bond, if there was an actual increase in the fees. That bond was issued prior to me getting here. I came, like, right after y'all had done that.

(21:12 - 21:23)
But from looking at the time frame, it doesn't look like there was a big adjustment made to your fees to pledge. That's what I was seeing, maybe. Yeah.

(21:23 - 21:27)
Okay. We don't need to get hung up there. I just... I was just curious.

(21:31 - 22:08)
The comparison of our tuition and fees to all the other colleges, this was as of spring of 2023, and we do not have any updated information on these tuition and fees. And so if you compare us to the Gulf Coast schools, you can see we're number six on in-district, but the gap here is pretty tight. You know, Galveston's only, like, $3 cheaper than we are, and Brazosport's only $1 more than we are.

(22:08 - 22:29)
So we're all just kind of right there together. But when you look at out-of-district, this is where we have some bigger gaps. So we're still number six, but the school closest to us is San Jack, and their rate is $135 per semester hour, where we're at $162.

(22:29 - 23:11)
So there's a pretty big gap there between those two schools. And this is something that we continue to watch, and that is a major reason why we are wanting to hold that rate steady and not increase it. Do we know if they increased since this is over a year old? Do we know if they increased for this year? I don't know. 

That data's not available yet. As soon as it is, I'll share it with you. The non-resident rate, again, very low population for us international students.

(23:11 - 23:46)
A lot of our athletes would qualify as non-residents, but we're number four in the Gulf Coast on our rate for non-resident students. And this is just an estimate as to how much revenue is generated if we were to increase that tuition amount. So if we were to increase our in-district tuition based on our current rates, it would only generate $91,000 for the college.

(23:47 - 24:01)
Increase in how much? $1. $1 generates? $91,000. Out-of-district, if we increased out-of-district by $1, it would generate $29,000 or almost $30,000.

(24:04 - 24:37)
If we increase the general fee by $1, that generates about $98,000. So the thing to remember on this is when you increase tuition, there's a portion of that that has to go over, that we have to pledge to TPEG, 6%. So when we increase that, you don't get the full amount of that falling into your operating budget because you have to allocate 6% of that over for scholarships to students.

(24:38 - 25:31)
Annette, won't the operation of the branch campus effectively bring down our out-of-district rate? So obviously, that's all still yet to be determined, but in essence, any tax money that is generated from the branch campus will not impact this operating budget at all. We will have to have a separate operating budget for that facility, and all the funds that are collected must be spent at that facility. We have spoken to them about lowering the out-of-district rate for the students who are in that taxing district, and that amount has not yet been decided.

(25:31 - 25:45)
And quite honestly, at this point, it's still going to be a couple of years out before it starts impacting us. They've committed for it to be lower than the out-of-district rate. Oh, yeah.

(25:46 - 26:01)
They'll work that out. So the impact we may see is the students that were coming here that were out-of-district won't be coming here as many. So we could see a little bit of a decrease possibly? Potentially, yeah.

(26:01 - 26:21)
I mean, theoretically, if they were going to come here, and they have been, and now they're going to go over there, and we don't see that revenue, that's revenue we're not going to be seeing here. I don't think it's a huge impact, but... I mean, we'll still see it, right? I mean, they're still going to be part of Lee College. We get the benefit of what they do.

(26:21 - 26:33)
I'm just saying the actual dollars coming in here. But there might be some growth of people that may normally not sign up. So we may... Right, you may be able to make it up on volume.

(26:33 - 26:45)
No, I'm not saying it's a negative. I'm just saying that there will be a part of the population that's been coming here that are out-of-district that will have an option. Still Lee College, but an option that doesn't affect the revenue here.

(26:46 - 27:03)
The outcomes help us, right? But the actual revenue won't be coming here. The revenue is the revenue of the college. The only thing that is protected, if you will, or restricted is going to be the tax revenue.

(27:05 - 27:23)
Okay? But... In my understanding, will the tuition revenue that the students pay that's yet to be determined for that district, that will still come to us, to Lee College? It's all part of Lee College. There's not an us and them. It's all part of Lee College.

(27:25 - 27:36)
It's all revenue that's generated. Okay, so the only impact would be that small portion of out-of-district may be a little lower than it currently is that's coming to us. Could be, could be.

(27:38 - 27:55)
But then, as someone pointed out, you could make it up on volume, too, if you get more students because their location is right there next door rather than driving to Lone Star, rather than driving to wherever. Yeah, good clarification. I forgot about the difference between the taxes collected and the tuition and fees collected.

(27:56 - 28:04)
Right. Okay, yeah, thanks. But all the taxes stay out there.

(28:04 - 28:08)
Is that what you said? All the taxes stay over there. Stay over there. Yes.

(28:09 - 28:35)
All the taxes that are collected in that taxing district must be spent at that facility. And the costs, I know this is a little bit outside, but when you say spent at that facility, that's for the facility and the operation? And the operations of the facility, yes. That include our faculty salaries? That would include faculty.

(28:35 - 28:45)
That would include administration. Everything. Anything it takes to run that facility, then that tax would be allocated to pay that cost.

(28:46 - 29:01)
So it could be a windfall then for us. We get all the tuition. We don't have the expense, right? I'm sure that's in the details, right? Right.

(29:02 - 29:08)
The devil's in the details. The devil's in the details. So my question, back to my point.

(29:09 - 29:50)
So let's assume for a fact a Barbersville resident, a Barbersville taxpaying student is going to pay a lower rate than our out-of-district, okay? So my question is, two years from now when this is a reality, might we be seeing a separate line item for out-of-district BH? Look, I'm sure there are other reports that this gets blended into. Ultimately, you blend those two together, it's a lowering of our out-of-district rate. If you don't make it up in volume, that's correct.

(29:51 - 30:11)
But in theory, though, the lower out-of-district rate is at the branch campus, not here. So tuition is determined based on residents, okay? So it doesn't matter whether they're taking classes over there or whether they're taking classes here at the main campus. Their tuition is based on their residents.

(30:12 - 30:29)
So they could be taking classes here and they'll still get the lower out-of-district rate because it's all based on residents. And I'm saying it's a lowering of the rate, not the revenue. Okay, you keep saying making up on volume.

(30:29 - 30:44)
I'm saying by blending it on a report that we're looking at comparing us to other campuses in the district, we've lowered our out-of-district rate. If you combine the two? Yes. Probably so.

(30:47 - 31:01)
Okay, I don't see how you can't. Yeah, that's going to be a fun discussion. Do we have any other branch campuses with any of our schools? Because that will distort the number.

(31:02 - 31:08)
Yeah, I don't know. There's a handful of other schools that have branch campuses. I know Amarillo College has one.

(31:08 - 31:20)
I know Clarendon has one. I know Hill College has a couple. I mean, there's probably, I don't know, seven, eight, I don't know the exact number, but there's a handful of schools that have a branch campus.

(31:20 - 31:48)
Here on the Gulf Coast? No. And when we set up our reporting, and all this is still, again, in the details, I mean, we will be accounting for these funds separately, so we will be able to tell you what the tuition is from that population of students. We'll be able to tell you what the operation costs for that facility are.

(31:49 - 32:44)
And so we will be able to provide you with detail of how all of that works out, because quite honestly, since this tax was passed by the ISD, right, then they have the right to ask us for financial reports, which I'm assuming they will, where they want to see, okay, if we collected $9 million for you guys, how did you spend it? And then that reporting will most likely be used to set the rate for the next tax year. So if at some point it was determined that we didn't need the full five cents, maybe we only needed four cents, then potentially you could see an adjustment. But that's way down the road, not something we need to worry about at this point.

(32:45 - 32:52)
And the adjustment would be made not by us, but by them. That's correct. Barbers Hill School District.

(32:52 - 33:26)
That's correct, because it's their tax that they collect for us. The history of our tax rate, so for the last couple of years, the rate's been lowered by about a penny. We have continued to make the extra payments for our outstanding debt.

(33:27 - 34:05)
And in looking at that today, when we make our $2 million payment at the end of this fiscal year in August, the bond that was issued in 2013 will be fully paid. Comes off our books. It's a done deal. 

It's gone. So at that point, the only bond that we will have outstanding is going to be the one that was issued like 2018, 2017, that we refinanced, and it's now called the 2023 bond. It's about $26 million.

(34:06 - 34:30)
It will be the debt that we have remaining on the books for GO debt. That is still part of the 2013 GO bond amount? What is part of that amount? Is refinanced? No. At the end of this year, 2013 bond is done and gone.

(34:30 - 34:49)
So what other bond have we had besides the 18 revenue bond? There's not been another election bond, a GO bond. There was one that y'all did right before I got here. It was like 40 million, 30 million, something like that, that you used to renovate Rundell and all that good stuff.

(34:49 - 34:53)
Yeah. Yeah, that was 13. That was a 13 bond.

(34:53 - 35:00)
They did 18. Oh. Yeah, that was the balance of the 2013 bond.

(35:01 - 35:17)
Right? But there's another bond that's outstanding, another GO bond that's outstanding for 2016. 2013 is what we didn't refinance. That's what it was.

(35:18 - 35:29)
So it got split into two parts. We had the 2013, the 2023. It got split into two parts when we did the refinancing.

(35:30 - 35:43)
And so the 2023 portion would still be outstanding. The 2013 part that we didn't refinance pays off at the end of this year. Yeah.

(35:43 - 35:48)
But just to clarify, the last GO bond we had was 2013. Okay. Yeah.

(35:48 - 35:54)
It was about $40 million total. So, sorry, I misspoke on that one. Yeah, I thought I missed.

(35:54 - 36:03)
To recap, after this bond payment is made, there will be 26 million outstanding in debt. Yes. Okay.

(36:03 - 36:15)
And it will be titled as the 2023 GO bond. That's correct. We don't publicize it that way, do we? We don't.

(36:15 - 36:30)
It's confusing to say it's 2023 GO bond because we didn't have a GO bond election. Right. So it's the remnants of the 2013 GO bond election that we're now refinancing, calling it 2023 bond, moving forward, right? Right.

(36:31 - 36:53)
I mean, technically it is 2023 because when you had to go out and reissue bonds to pay everything off, then it became renamed. We don't necessarily publish anywhere the title of all of our bonds, but technically it is a 2023 because that's when it was issued. There was no new money involved.

(36:54 - 37:04)
No. No, I get that part. It's just that when we, community-wise, track GO bonds, it's when they were actually elected on, not refinanced.

(37:05 - 37:09)
I'm just trying to keep track. Well, you know how accountants are. We're not accountants.

(37:09 - 37:14)
You just want to call everything what you want. Yeah, we just make it up. Maybe I'll call it 2013.2 or something.

(37:14 - 37:19)
We're all the record. Simple-minded people. We don't need more numbers than what we started with.

(37:21 - 37:46)
The tax comparison, again, there's no new information on this yet, and so this is the same information that we provided to you last year as those amounts are available, then we will, again, provide it to you. This, the table up the upper right, that's the Gulf Coast Colleges? Yes, sir. That is last year's data? Yes, sir.

(37:49 - 38:12)
Yeah, it would take us a big jump to make a move. Right. So I think I mentioned to you earlier that our evaluations did increase slightly, say slightly, 764, 65 million.

(38:17 - 38:54)
This shows we have an increase of 1.6, but this is based off of what we had budgeted. The number I showed you earlier was based off of what we've actually collected because we've been collecting above what we had budgeted, and so this shows an additional $1.6 million, but if you compare it to what we've actually been doing this year, it's only an increase of about $870,000. We are going to recommend that we continue the strategy of paying down debt.

(38:56 - 39:30)
As I mentioned, we're going to have $26 million left on the books after the payment this year. It is set to mature 20 of 37, so we still have several years. By continuing our strategy of allocating 2-plus million every year to go toward this debt, we should be able to pay that off within 5 to 7 years rather than dragging it out to 2037.

(39:39 - 40:10)
I'm not talking about expenses tonight, so I'm going to flip past that. Our total valuation is at $20 billion, basically? Total? Tax values? Right. $20 billion? Yeah, about $14.6 in Harris County, chambers a little over $6, and then we have an unknown amount plugged in there of $500 million, so overall around $20 billion.

(40:10 - 40:27)
Is the Chambers County portion growing faster than the Harris County portion? No. If you look down here, you can see how it compares. It's $14.6 in Harris County this year.

(40:28 - 41:06)
Last year we had $14.2. Chambers County, a little over $6 million here. Last year it was $5.8. When looking at that, taxes on a $100,000 home, that is really not the average price of a home. Would it do any good to maybe change this to reflect the real average price of a home, just for grins? I know we can go times 3 or times 2. I mean, if you want me to show it to you that way, I can.

(41:06 - 41:21)
I mean, it depends on everybody. The reason we do it on $100,000 is that's what we're required to publish. And that's what we're required to publish whenever we have to publish ads in the paper and stuff.

(41:22 - 41:37)
So that's the reason we do it that way. What might be helpful as a footnote is to say the average price of a home in our district is X. We can do that. I'd have a lot more rent houses if they were $100,000.

(41:37 - 41:41)
The $100,000 number allows you to multiply it easily. Right, exactly. It's easy math.

(41:41 - 41:44)
That's why everybody uses it. That's what I was looking at. I can do that.

(41:44 - 42:03)
I made that comment too, but it would be kind of nice to see it. What I would like to see in a future presentation when we're looking at revenue is what raising our over 65 exemption would do to the revenue collected. Don't move.

(42:06 - 42:17)
I know the city is looking at raising theirs. Yeah, we raised ours last year. And we can certainly take a look and see what it would look like.

(42:18 - 42:23)
I knew you were going to ask me that. I know. We're currently at $120,000, isn't it? I think it's $120,000.

(42:24 - 42:31)
You know for sure, Julian? Yeah. Okay. I looked at it a couple hours ago, so I'm pretty sure of what I'm saying.

(42:31 - 42:51)
When we had discussion last year, on the over 65, are the values for Lee College frozen like they are for the school district? That was brought up. The value doesn't actually freeze. It's the tax that you pay that freezes.

(42:52 - 43:08)
And so they go through the same calculation, and then they compare that to the amount of your tax that was frozen. And so if it's less, then you pay the lesser amount. If it's more, you pay the lesser amount.

(43:16 - 43:35)
So I think I mentioned earlier in the presentation that we're still in the process of going through everyone's budget requests. So we hope to have that done early in June. We're a little bit behind, but we'll get there.

(43:36 - 44:12)
And so then we'll be coming back to you in June with the expense side of the house, as well as any updates that we may have for revenue. And then based on the calendar that we agreed upon, then in July, the budget that we bring to you in June should be what we bring back to you in July and ask you to approve. With the caveat that we, by July, we still will not have final valuations.

(44:13 - 44:40)
We still will not have the final calculation of the no new revenue tax rate. So there could be, we may come back to you, September maybe, and ask for some type of a budget amendment if we need to do that based on final tax numbers. That's just a reminder of kind of what the schedule looks like.

(44:45 - 45:07)
And then on the board of reserves, that $25 million, does that include our excess money we're going to have at the end of August? No, sir. We still got a couple, two or three million or more we could add to that in the next couple of months. Potentially.

(45:08 - 45:35)
I mean, once we know what that number is, we'll bring it back to you guys and make some recommendations on allocation of those funds and then we'll see what it looks like. What's that number expected to be or what, on your chart, what's it tracking to be right now? It's around four. Was there a total revenue on here that I missed? That you're... Revenue projections.

(45:35 - 45:40)
Total. 88 something. 88,545.

(45:45 - 46:02)
Are you going to send us this? I can provide it to David and then he can distribute it to you guys. That would be great. The increase is what you highlight on the right side of that column, right? Right, the 2602.

(46:03 - 46:25)
Could you also provide us a five-year history on our budget balance at the end of the years? The operating surplus for the last five years? Okay. Thank you. And I think you explained this, but I guess I wasn't paying attention.

(46:25 - 46:39)
On the state appropriations contact hours... If you didn't pay attention, I can't back up. Yeah, it's hard to read these numbers. The $20 million, what does that number represent again? You had it.

(46:39 - 46:47)
Yeah, line 28. So the $20,169,021? Yeah. That's our state allocation for the current year.

(46:51 - 47:14)
So this year, I can't read the top lines to know what the columns are, but I guess the $8,232,000 was last year? That was when our funding was broken up differently. We had, like, three pots of funding. We had our core student success and then contact hour funding.

(47:15 - 47:40)
And then with the new funding model, they just rolled everything into one number. So you really need to look at those together, which was $10,500,000 compared to the $20,169,000. So it went from $10,510,000 to, I don't know what column J is, but to $20,169,000? So it jumped up roughly $10 million? Not quite $10 million.

(47:40 - 47:47)
That's correct. That jump was when? This year, in the current budget year. For this year? Yes, sir.

(47:48 - 47:56)
We had those discussions, yeah, last summer. We talked about how to allocate that. We got the second highest increase in the state.

(47:56 - 48:13)
That's what that is. So we're up $10 million. Where did that money go? Well, I mean, we walked through all of that last year of how that money was allocated, and I'll have to pull that out.

(48:14 - 48:35)
But you're going to use it again this year, it looks like, right? The same $10 million? We're anticipating that, right? Right. So where's it going this year, then? Well, we'll bring that back to you when we have our proposed budget, which will be in June. Again, we haven't finished going through everyone's budget request for this next fiscal year.

(48:36 - 48:48)
And so we will bring that budget back to you in June. But my memory says it went towards maintenance and operations. It went towards raises.

(48:48 - 49:00)
It went towards storm reserve. It went to all the priorities that we covered initially. It's just allocated based on those priorities, yeah.

(49:01 - 49:15)
But the total at the bottom, the $88 million this year versus last year, that didn't jump by $10 million. I need to see this, I guess, when I can read a little more. $82 million versus $72 million, right? Right.

(49:16 - 49:19)
Go back. OK. I can't tell what the columns are.

(49:19 - 49:33)
OK. $88 million now versus $72 million before the new funding model. A different subject.

(49:34 - 50:20)
On reserves and the four months that we think we're going to have, do we have any kind of, say, a disaster plan or whatever on how much we would need to operate the college and how long we would go or we could use that money for and what we'd stop doing if we had to close down? You know, how does that $25 million get used and what happens after it's gone? Do we have any kind of plan? I know companies do. Right, a disaster plan. A disaster plan is what you're asking about? To show where that $25 million would go and how long it would last and where we start cutting things off.

(50:20 - 50:32)
Well, the $25 would last 4.2 months, roughly. That's assuming zero revenue, right, including taxes? Right. That's right.

(50:33 - 50:43)
If this was your sole funding source. Which that would never be the case, right, because of taxes, right? Well, I don't know. Taxes could take a huge hit.

(50:43 - 50:55)
If you had a huge storm come through and blow everything away, then your taxes are not going to be fine. Yeah, but there's a delay on that. That wouldn't happen until the next tax year.

(50:56 - 51:03)
In theory. But then your collection rate goes down the tubes too. That I'll give you.

(51:03 - 51:10)
I know what Mark is asking. I can tell you this is all theoretical because there's no way we're going to spend down $25 million. Right, exactly.

(51:11 - 51:23)
It's not going to happen. It's just money that we're supposed to have to show that we're financially strong and that if something did happen, we'd be able to cover it. But there's no way we would have a plan to spend down $25 million, be shut down and gone.

(51:23 - 51:27)
No way. No business would do that. No one would do that.

(51:27 - 51:38)
It just gives us financial strength. It's a requirement for financial strength. If the campus were to get blown away, we would probably pivot back to some type of an online situation.

(51:39 - 51:51)
And, you know, you say, you know, how long could we last? Well, you know, everything is ‑‑ it depends. It depends on what you have to do. It depends on a lot of things.

(51:53 - 52:06)
Assuming there was a disaster and we had to shut down for a long time, how long do we pay people? How long do we do that? That would be a decision that you would make. That's what it is. Well, the 4.2 is more than just that.

(52:06 - 52:14)
It's everything, contract services. That tells you how long, if something was to happen. So is that our plan? But that's what the reserve is for.

(52:15 - 52:30)
What? You can back into it. You come to that number and it tells you with this amount, the 25, you could continue business for 4.2 months before you're without money. And all it is is a calculation.

(52:31 - 52:44)
Yeah, you just back into it. So you can decide how much, how long you want. If you want to be six months before you're out, then that means you need to increase your reserves in order to accommodate that.

(52:44 - 52:54)
Or come back expenses. It's a calculated number. All it is is just makes us financially strong.

(52:54 - 53:03)
It's a calculated number. You can theoretically come up with all kinds of disaster plans and how you're going to spend it. We would never spend $25 million.

(53:03 - 53:16)
We may spend $5 or $10 to get our new path created forward, but we wouldn't spend it all down. S&P and Moody's are like that number. It's a requirement.

(53:16 - 53:29)
I agree with Regent Santana. But the four months, that's operating just on the $25 million. Our state funding is not going to stop because we have a hurricane and our taxes are not going to completely evaporate.

(53:29 - 53:47)
So we're not totally dependent for operations on just our reserves. There are other sources that would continue to flow. Well, it's according to when the disaster occurs because our taxes come in September to January, the vast majority of them.

(53:47 - 53:59)
State funding hits, and then it's gone. And so we have got to have that laid up according to when it hits. We may not have much funding, if any.

(54:01 - 54:24)
And the other thing to keep in mind with Lee College specifically is we rely on taxes for close to 50% of our operating budget. So if we have a huge hit to that funding source, there would have to be adjustments made. Cost of doing business.

(54:24 - 54:43)
And our tax revenue is $39, $40 million. Okay, well then I guess I'll see you next month when we have the rest of the budget. Very detailed, thank you.

(54:45 - 55:03)
All right, I believe next on the agenda was matters of concern for future agendas. I've told her what I want to see next. Has everybody given their consent on what we want to see on the next workshop? Well, I always like to see what it would look like if we cut a penny in taxes.

(55:04 - 55:21)
So that's not going to be a surprise to anybody, but I'd like to see it when we build the budget. All right. If there are no more matters of concern for future agenda, we will stand adjourned until our regular board meeting at 6.