(0:02 - 0:23)
We'll call the meeting of the budget workshop to order. We do have a quorum. And first thing on that agenda is public comment.

(0:24 - 0:29)
No one signed up, Mr. Chairman. Okay. So moving right into budget developmental workshop.

(0:29 - 0:34)
All right. We were wondering where you were, Annette. Annette, lead us, please.

(0:35 - 0:50)
We have a budget. And now we have a workshop. What did you say? What did he say? Do we have a workshop? And now we have a workshop.

(0:51 - 0:55)
We have a budget, now we have a workshop. And we're ready to go. We're ready to go.

(0:56 - 1:15)
So some of this we've already talked about. Some of it we have not. So looking at the overall level of the budget, it has increased this year compared to last.

(1:15 - 1:22)
Can you turn the volume up on, I mean the size. The font size. She knows what I mean.

(1:24 - 1:29)
She knows exactly what I mean. What volume? Turn the volume up. The written volume.

(1:29 - 1:36)
Turn the written volume up. Turn the volume up on these words. I got my cheaters on, I'm still leaning in.

(1:36 - 1:43)
OK. Did that help or no? OK. So comparing budget to budget.

(1:44 - 1:53)
So budget last year was $83 million. Proposed budget this year, $89 million. So it's an increase of about $6 million.

(1:53 - 2:06)
Where'd the $6 million come from? Well, tuition and fees are budgeted relatively flat. There's a slight increase. State appropriations, I think we shared with you all at our last workshop.

(2:06 - 2:24)
State appropriations is slated to increase $1.6 million for the current year. Increase in tax revenue, $1.8 million. In lieu of tax revenue, we're expecting an increase of about $1.4 million.

(2:26 - 2:45)
And then increase in other investment interest income, about $1 million. We have some other expenses that are included in this budget. We've got about $1.3 million in new positions.

(2:50 - 3:16)
We've got about 1.4, and I'm sorry, this note is not on there, about 1.4, 1.5 slated for a 4% salary increase for our staff. We also will be recommending that we set our minimum wage to be $15. We had moved that up to $13 a couple of years ago.

(3:17 - 3:40)
And it has always been our intent to continue to increase that. So we do have an increase of the minimum wage to $15. We have an increase in our repairs and maintenance budget of about $1 million, and then we have increase in contracts of about $600,000.

(3:48 - 4:30)
So, looking at our operating expenses and trying to estimate out where we think those need to be for our reserve calculations, we're at about $5 million a month. And so looking at the balance of our reserves, that number's wrong, we are estimating that we need $5.1 million to address our operating expenses. So to have a 4- or a 6-month reserve, we'd need somewhere between $20 and $30 million.

(4:30 - 5:02)
Right now we have $25, so we're looking fine as far as that goes. On our tuition and fee history, we've held our tuition and fee history stable for the last five years anyway. The only increase that we have this year is the MyBooks fee, and we have that slated to go from $27.50 to $33.

(5:06 - 5:34)
Our tuition charts, again we just talked about that, our tuition and fees have not changed, and we're not proposing any type of an increase. Comparing us to other schools, we're at $91 a semester credit hour on average. Some of our fees are like a flat fee, and some of our fees are charged by semester credit hour.

(5:35 - 6:02)
And so you can't just add them all up, you have to add and subtract and divide and do that math thing. So when you compare our in-district rate to everyone else, looking at the Gulf Coast districts, we're number seven. We're at 91, well, we could say we're number six, because we're tied with Brazos Port.

(6:02 - 6:12)
It says 780, I thought, for them. I'm sorry? Doesn't BC say 780? So we're still below? It does. It does say that.

(6:14 - 6:20)
Is that wrong? Well, it's ranked by the $91. Yeah, so we're not tied with them now. The $91.

(6:20 - 6:24)
The $91. President Brown. It does? Yeah.

(6:25 - 6:36)
So. Their fees are drastically, their tuitions are lower, their fees are lower, and we both come out at the $91. So you have to look at the total? Yeah.

(6:37 - 7:11)
Oh, I get it now. Our non-resident, which really is very small part of our enrollment, we're number three, and a lot of those students are actually our athletes, so we end up scholarship in those amounts. Our out-of-district, which is probably our most critical ranking, because this is where we're competing for students, and we are number six.

(7:12 - 7:35)
And we're significantly, in my opinion, significantly above San Jack, which is the one who's closest to us. So we're 163 compared to their 144. However, we are below Houston, and we are below Lone Star, which is good.

(7:37 - 8:08)
And my recommendation is that we continue to hold steady and continue to evaluate that. Our tax chart, you can see the high point was back in 2015 when we were at $2,607. 2019, we were at $2,500, and right now we are at $2,101.

(8:12 - 8:46)
When you compare our rate to the other schools, Brazosport College of the Mainland are higher than us, and then the ones closest to us would be Alvin and San Jacinto. Our history, again, you saw that on the graph. We have lowered it significantly in the last few years.

(8:49 - 9:15)
And right now, we are proposing that the tax rate be left where it is at the $2,101. We've gotten some different estimates on no new revenue and voter approved rates, and I can tell you those estimates are all over the board. We received three different estimates.

(9:15 - 9:34)
Two of the estimates were higher than our current rate. One of the estimates was lower than our current rate. And so at this point, I'm not comfortable with any of them because they are just going every which way.

(9:37 - 9:56)
And I have an unexpected error. Annette, when do you think that might close in to something you do trust? Not until the end of July. So not before we come to you to ask that you approve the budget.

(9:56 - 10:12)
If you want to approve the budget in July, we won't have those numbers by that time. And that's not uncommon, though. So you just use your expertise, your trends, and you make a call.

(10:12 - 10:36)
It's not uncommon. That happens all over for you not to have final numbers. When we look at salary history here, again, I think I mentioned earlier that we are proposing a 4% increase for staff and faculty, as well as increasing the minimum wage to $15.

(10:40 - 10:53)
That gives everybody a raise when we do that? Faculty, staff, and then the minimum wage. That covers everybody? Yes, sir. Including part-time.

(10:53 - 11:05)
We've included part-time in this calculation as well. Of course, I guess we could have part-time or hourly people who make more than $15 now. What will they get? They would get the 4%.

(11:06 - 11:27)
Even like, say, a janitor? Is that included in that group? Yes. So if the 4% does not get them at or above $15, then they will go to $15. But I will tell you that we have very, very few that are going to be below that limit.

(11:27 - 11:57)
We have taken a look at that, and it's just a handful of people. So we've done a lot between raising our minimum wage to $13, which we did a couple of years ago, and then the compression adjustment that we did, that has really moved people onto the scale where they need to be. So we have very few that will be impacted by increasing that minimum wage, but we still felt like it was important to do.

(12:04 - 12:32)
This is the impact of raising our tuition or our fees by a dollar, and the main takeaway here is just to remember that if you increase tuition, you only get 94% of that increase. Because 6% of that you have to put in the TPEG set-aside that's awarded as scholarships to other students. If you increase a fee, you get the whole dollar.

(12:40 - 13:16)
So as I mentioned earlier, the proposed scenario on the budget, we're at $89,049,000 of that is salaries and benefits. We do have an adjustment in here to back off 5% of that to allow for some vacancies and lapse of employment in certain positions. We talked about the 4% raise.

(13:19 - 14:14)
Continuing the million dollars, the extra million in our insurance so that we can build that reserve as well. The contingency, we still have budgeted at a million dollars. Our repairs and maintenance last year, it was budgeted at a little over 4. This year, we got it up a little over 5. When we looked at what that number needed to be, the estimate was really closer to 7, but at this point, we just don't feel like we can actually spend that money in a timely manner.

(14:15 - 14:42)
We need to get this other person on board and then we'll be able to better estimate what volume we can handle as far as facility projects go. We did allow for our additional bond payment of $2 million. And then all the other expenses are pretty much the same.

(14:43 - 14:57)
The $29 million is about what it was this year? Yes sir. We've identified the main differences. I'm not going to say it's exactly the same, but we've identified the main differences.

(15:01 - 15:18)
This is just a detail by account. So you can see the $6 million increase in revenue. And then our expenses, the increases in expenses as well.

(15:23 - 15:45)
And then this is everything put together. We did include in this file our long-range projections. And we'll be glad to send this out to you guys again so you can play with it and estimate and see what happens if you would like that.

(15:46 - 16:34)
When we talk about debt, once we make our payment in August of this year, that extra $2 million, that's going to leave us with a principal remaining of about $26 million in geodet. And if we stay firm to our commitment of paying down basically $2 million every year, so you can see on this, our debt is scheduled to be paid off in 2037. If we continue with our $2 million pay down, you can see our debt actually pays off at around 2030.

(16:36 - 17:16)
So we're going to cut about seven years off of our debt if we continue on this track. I did speak to our bond advisors and I said, you know, I understand everything is, well, it depends, right? It depends on what the tax rate is, depends on what your bond rating is, depends on this, depends on that. I said, but knowing what we know now, if we have zero geodet, but we keep our debt payment basically the same, which is around $5 million right now, is what we're paying out each year.

(17:17 - 18:07)
How much could we borrow to keep that same payment? Her estimate was somewhere between 60 and 75 million. So if we continue on this path, then as we get to the end of this, we potentially could go out for a $75 million, $60 million bond without having to increase our rate to our current taxpayers. And at that penny amount is what right now on the INS side? It's about 2 million.

(18:08 - 18:14)
The penny, the- The value of one? Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking for it here.

(18:19 - 18:34)
So our tax value is a little over 20 billion. And so the one penny would be around 2 million. I'm asking, what is our current INS rate right now? Oh, oh, oh, I'm sorry.

(18:34 - 18:54)
I'm sorry. So right now, we are collecting 18 cents for M&O and 2, 6, 9 for INS. Okay.

(18:55 - 19:12)
And that INS side, that you've got, you show the history there, but I think, yeah, I looked at it in the past, like 4 cents is kind of historically, at least recent history, been the highest it's ever been? Yeah. Back in, what year was that, 2014, 2015? Yeah, somewhere in there. Yeah.

(19:12 - 19:26)
It was around 4 cents. It's not a big part of our tax rate, percentage-wise, but, you know, when you're looking at 2 1⁄2, a little over 2 1⁄2 cents to cover bond debt, that's a pretty small piece of your tax rate. It is.

(19:27 - 19:46)
And if we, so if we continued on the path that you were talking about, we essentially could leave the 2.69 there, theoretically, and go borrow $75 million without changing anything at all. Exactly. Where when we went out and borrowed $40 million in 2013, it went up from 2 to 4. Yep.

(19:49 - 20:09)
If, I think I know the answer to this, I'm going to ask the question anyway, though. So, if we shifted any pennies from one side to the INS side, that requires a vote, does it not? Mm-mm. Okay.

(20:09 - 20:22)
So, there's a separate... Well, because I'm thinking about... There's a separate calculation. There's a separate calculation for the M&O and the debt service, so there are limits, the same way there is on the total tax rate. Okay.

(20:22 - 20:38)
So, there's a limit to how much we can shift, but we can shift. And so, you know, if we find ourselves, especially with the increased state allocation, at some point, you know, it could be $100 million by shifting pennies from one side to the other. Right.

(20:38 - 20:41)
Without going out for a bond. Without going out for a vote. Yes.

(20:42 - 21:18)
Okay. Or if we decided to pay more than $2 million a year, in the coming years, there's different ways to get there, right? There are. And that's probably a very serious conversation that we need to have, as far as what is our comfort level with going out for a bond in three years, in four years, in five years, so that we can kind of set a goal as to where we want our debt level to be when we feel like it's a good time to pull that trigger.

(21:18 - 21:47)
And I know it's all just a, you know, a guess. But it is a guess that we need to discuss and think about, so that we can plan accordingly, so that if we do want to shift a couple, you know, a penny over to INS to pay the debt off in four years instead of five, or in three years instead of five, then we can do that. We just need to have that conversation and have that goal.

(21:48 - 21:55)
And that'll be a much better conversation when we have a facilities master plan. Yes. Absolutely.

(21:56 - 22:05)
It all circles right back around. Absolutely. And I think realistically, the wait until we pay down and then borrowing money and not raising is not realistic.

(22:06 - 22:29)
I think hopefully we get to a GEO bond need prior to this debt being paid off. But what will significantly help is any increase, even if we didn't shift, if we just raised it a penny instead of, you know, two or four, right? So we've got a lot of flexibility because of doing this now. And I think that's what's important.

(22:29 - 23:07)
Absolutely. And, you know, we can always look at, again, depending upon rates and everything else, you know, you can always refinance the current debt and, you know, all kinds of ways to craft it and to design it to keep the rate as close to what it is now without having to ask for more money. You know, because just because we go out for a debt right now, you know, sometimes you can postpone some of those principal payments for a later date.

(23:07 - 23:40)
So it doesn't dramatically increase your payment, but, again, that's all things that can be discussed and ironed out once we, like you say, have the facility master plan, have a true plan as to what we feel like we need, and then we can design our approach to this debt to complement whatever it is we feel like we need to execute the facility master plan. Yep. I'm looking forward to those discussions, so thanks.

(23:43 - 24:00)
I don't know where I was in that question or where you were in your presentation, but I don't either. We sort of deflected there, but I think you were. Did you jump over the new position tab or did I just miss it? No.

(24:00 - 24:24)
So I think I mentioned to you we had like 1.4, 1.5 million in new positions, and this is kind of just a listing of what those new positions are. Some of these are related to our strategic plan. You know, some of the advising positions, it's all part of the strategic plan and it was all planned for.

(24:25 - 24:45)
We have, you know, faculty positions. We have the facility position as well that I mentioned. To go along with the facility position, if we're going to get hot and heavy on projects, we're going to need to add a fixed asset accountant, and so that position is in here as well.

(24:46 - 25:08)
We have some part-time positions that have been requested, and all of these positions have been discussed and vetted by cabinet, and they were presented to Dr. V and now presented to the board to go forward with. And aligned with our strategic vision document. Yes, sir.

(25:09 - 25:43)
Are these all the positions that were requested? Are these all the positions that made it from the request list to recommendation? These are all the positions that made it through cabinet and presented to Dr. V for approval. What's the difference between the colors, the red and the blue? That was us trying to show really nothing. It was us trying to be able to look at something quick and see what we had going on.

(25:43 - 26:17)
So you can see like the top was just new full-time, new part-time, part-time to full-time, and these are positions that were actually added in the current year that weren't in our budget, and so then it kicks out as a new position this year. So wait, those you said that were added, we already added those, but they were not in our last year's budget? Is that what you said? Yes. Those are people that we hired in 24 that were not in the budget? Yes.

(26:18 - 26:45)
We did that, okay. Well we have needs that come up throughout the year, and so obviously these are always presented to the board for your review and consideration before they're hired, but they were not necessarily included in the initial draft of the budget. As a line item, but in the dollar budget, it was absorbed, right? Yes.

(26:48 - 27:53)
Even if it's a contract position, it still comes before the board for approval with the information. You know, I can think of maybe one example where, I don't know if it actually happened for us, but we had a number of Title IX requirements, and we decided that kind of, I think it was midstream that we had to have someone totally focused on all these Title IX investigations and reporting requirements to both the state and the feds, and so that's an example of something that we've had to do, midstream. So again, the breakdown of the budget is an increase of about $6 million, and you can see there the breakdown on the revenue and the breakdown on other expenses.

(27:55 - 28:10)
And so, we are presenting to, we will be presenting to the board a balanced budget. All of the admin recommendations are included in what you're showing us tonight? Yes ma'am. We're getting all this data? Yes ma'am.

(28:11 - 28:24)
Is the, do you have prior year actuals numbers dropped in here somewhere? We do. If you look at the, I need to turn up the volume on this. Yeah, I'm not going to be able to see it.

(28:25 - 28:47)
I can't see anything on this screen, so that's why I'm just waiting to get my tangible. But is it in there? I just, if it's in there, I'll get it when I can see it. Right, so when you look at the master budget, you'll see you have the projected actual to budget variance, and then any adjustments, projected actuals for 2024, which would be the current year.

(28:48 - 29:10)
Right, I'm talking about prior year actuals. Prior being like 23? Where we, absolutely, actually where we ended in the prior year. Let me, so if you look at revenue projections, current tax rate, you'll see you have 2020, well, you won't see, because you can't see.

(29:12 - 29:27)
We have 2021, 22, 23, so we have going back to 2020 actuals. And this is on the tab titled revenue projections, current tax rate. That's on the revenue side.

(29:27 - 29:43)
Do you have it on the expense side? The expense is not on here, but I will get that for you. Please, thank you. Okay.

(29:44 - 30:01)
We don't have this yet, do we? But it shouldn't be a problem to email it out to the board? No, it should not. Well, you always have a problem, because then we get it, and then we hold you to it. But put your disclaimer on there, and we'll be fine.

(30:01 - 30:05)
I'll put draft on everything. That's right. Draft number.

(30:06 - 30:37)
Draft, watermark draft across all pages. And so, that is what I have prepared to share with you all tonight, and would entertain any questions that you might have, or entertain any additional requests that you may have, such as, Regent Guillory, we'll get you that, and provide it to everyone, the detail on the expenses. Absolutely.

(30:39 - 30:45)
So, drop it in before we get this, so we'll have all of it. Absolutely. We'll send it all as one document.

(30:47 - 31:25)
Is there any of the state appropriation allocation that you feel we're uncertain about continuing? 1.6 for sure. The 1.6, yes, but as we continue to build our other reserves, I'm not as nervous about that. Although, I will say, I visited with a colleague from my former employer, and I was like, so, how did y'all fare in the reallocation for the current year? Oh, we had a $4.4 million cut.

(31:27 - 31:30)
I was like, ooh. Cut. Cut.

(31:30 - 32:03)
Cut. So, they changed, and I think we talked about this last time, the change in the way they are allocating the dual credit 15 hours versus transfer, and there was some double counting there. So, you might have a dual credit student that had the 15 hours, and then they might transfer, and initially, they were counting both, and now, they're saying, no, you only get one.

(32:04 - 32:10)
But we get the higher of the two. But we get the higher. But that was the bulk of what happened to them.

(32:11 - 32:37)
That was the reason that their allocation went down. And that scenario didn't affect us. So, I know we've talked about all this extra money and how it's all coming in, and even without even going into a whole lot of conversation, this whole funding model and the additional money is funded from surplus the state has.

(32:38 - 33:01)
At some point, the surplus goes away. So, I think we feel pretty good about the allocation model and it continuing, but I think this last, I guess it was the 1.6 we talked about, let's not count on it coming in forever. So, if we were not have it, we wouldn't be significantly impacted, right? No, we would be all right.

(33:03 - 33:43)
So, we talked about that a little bit, too, at the conference and how the adjustments were supposed to be happening. And so, come February, they should be able to, because right now, all of our funding is based on all these projections, right? Based on our past performance, they're projecting that we're going to do X, Y, and Z, right? And so, all of that is used to calculate our allocation. So, come February, we should have all of 2024 numbers reported.

(33:43 - 34:10)
So, they will go back in to the calculation and replace all those estimates with actuals and figure out how did we actually perform versus how did they project that we would perform. If we outperformed the projections, then we would get another allocation. We underperformed.

(34:10 - 34:16)
If we underperformed. I was waiting. She hesitated.

(34:17 - 34:53)
If we underperformed, they're not going to send us a bill, so we're not going to be sending money back directly. What they're going to do is, they're going to say, for our next allocation, they're going to reduce it by the amount that they calculate that we were overpaid on the initial allocation. So, you know, they're doing their best to make it as convoluted as possible, and they're doing a very good job of that.

(34:53 - 35:40)
So, you've got lots of estimates, lots of we think, and I would expect there's going to be more changes that are coming that we don't even know about yet, that we're not even talking about yet. And Regent Santana, I would say from a very big picture view of this, our team, as well as the discussions that I have with other colleagues from around the state, is that, as you said, you know, a surplus is where this is coming from, and what we had before was an allocation model, which was a fixed pie. So they may have given us more money or assigned more points, you know, but they just shuffled the same amount of money, and we didn't get anything more.

(35:40 - 36:11)
And what we have now is what we call a dynamic funding, a true funding model, but I think our very realistic view is that eventually it's going to go back to an allocation model. I can't see how it can continue to balloon like this, so we're not betting on that. Yeah, at some point it has to change, because there's not an endless pot of money.

(36:13 - 36:40)
I think it's wise of us to look at it that way and not count on this in the future and be ready to adjust the other way, and not just because we have surplus, but because we can adapt to the funding that's available. I think we did the same, we took the same approach with the CARES Act funding. We didn't use it for operations, we didn't use it to fund normal stuff, and when it goes away it goes away, and we're still doing what we're doing.

(36:40 - 36:51)
So I think until all this settles down, and first of all, I'm telling you what I think. I know you think the same thing, so thank you for you and your team and everything you do. It's a complex model.

(36:52 - 37:14)
This type of finance is not easy, and so just thanks for staying on top of it and reaching out to your colleagues, and I know the state organizations are also watching it very closely. I don't have any discomfort in what we're doing and how you're looking at it that we'd run into a wall down the road, so thanks for all you do. Thank you.

(37:14 - 38:06)
I've got a quick question, ma'am. Help me connect the dots with the $30 to $40 million supplemental funding that's being asked for and how that impacts our budget. Right now, our estimate is $40 million, and that is, my understanding is they made a prediction, but we as a state, all 50 community colleges, exceeded the performance expectations that they had listed out, and because of that, they have an estimate of how much they're going to give us, but this was what they called a over, I forget what the term is, Annette, you may know what it is, but basically it's an adjustment because we overperformed, so we're asking for the first time to have additional monies for our new funding model because we outperformed, and we didn't know what that would be.

(38:06 - 38:13)
We had an estimated value. Could we possibly get a portion of that? We are. It's $1.6 million.

(38:14 - 38:57)
That's where our $1.6 million is. It's being included in that $40 million, so not everyone is in that, so think about $1.6 to $40 million, and that's ours, and it hasn't been approved, which is why we've talked about not budgeting it because it cannot be counted on. I, too, appreciate all the hard work, but the way I feel about it is a little different is a little different because I don't know if I'm supposed to celebrate or be depressed every time we talk about this because when we first got the allocation, it was a big deal.

(38:57 - 39:25)
It was a president's report. We outperformed. We did all this great stuff, and we were going to get all this money, and we were excited about it and the accolades of what was coming, and now when we talk about it, it's we don't know, and it's complicated, and we might, and it rhymes with, sounds like, and so every time we talk about it now, it always sounds like it's not a great thing, but I know we celebrated this.

(39:26 - 39:39)
So I don't know where the celebration went. I would much rather have an additional $1.6 million than lose $4.4 million, which is what happened to my former school. But everybody can't be Lee College.

(39:41 - 40:07)
No, but that sucks to be them. We performed to the point to where we were celebrating the amount we got because everybody can't be us, so that's, you know, they can't be, but because of what we, you guys have done, it put us in a different place, but since that time when we talk about it, it's depressing almost, and so I just, I don't know where the celebration went. Regent Ullrich, I think it's because of the uncertainty.

(40:07 - 40:16)
Like we keep saying, well, Annette and Dr. V say, well, this is what we're hearing, this is what we're told, but it may change. And we knew that from the beginning. Yeah.

(40:17 - 40:47)
Estimated projections. But I think that's the uncertainty that we don't know for sure that this is going to be the model at the end because they keep changing it, so if we did know, then we might feel a little more confident and actually be able to do some calculations or whatever, but we can't. But we know we're going to perform, and we know it's performance-based, and if we perform for the period, regardless to whether it's five minutes or five years, if we perform, we are going to get something more than what we've gotten before because we got zero.

(40:48 - 40:55)
Maybe. Unless the legislature decides to change it. I mean, I think they changed it, but for right now, though, that's what it is, right? Right.

(40:55 - 41:01)
In theory, you're absolutely right. And we still are the number two highest. Okay.

(41:01 - 41:09)
Increased in the state. That is something to celebrate, which I did last month report that. The calculation could change.

(41:09 - 41:12)
Right. Okay. Such as.

(41:12 - 41:21)
I would simply say that if in a year or two, all this went away and we're back to where we were, I'd still celebrate the two or three years of getting it. Absolutely. I just want the celebration to come back.

(41:21 - 41:27)
Okay. Thank you. What you have to remember is that politicians are fiddling with them figures.

(41:27 - 41:41)
No doubt. And what we did on behalf of students is really the win here because we did the right thing for the right reason and we would do it again. We continue to do it now.

(41:41 - 42:24)
We are dependent upon the money, but we would continue to keep those success levels that garnered that kind of money. And you know, Annette, Annette can summarize that and you guys know the board approved, you know, the, and with the celebration from all of us, a number of things that were above and beyond last year, including the highest increase in, in salary raise for over 20 years, at least that we're aware of increase in repairs, maintenance, increase in insurance, you know, the bond payment debt, all of those priorities were able to be met because of the excess funds that were received in, in state funding. And so that, that truly is a celebration.

(42:25 - 42:53)
We're trying, we're just trying to manage our own expectations as well as keep the board informed of, and when I said big picture, I mean years out, I have no, I mean, it is our expectation that it just can't continue endlessly to keep building like this. And we've been trained kind of in our world to expect to be cut at some point or another by the legislature. So we're just managing expectations for ourselves and others.

(42:53 - 43:52)
And, and almost every day or every week we're hearing something different about the standing advisory committee, you know, making new rules and the coordinating board implement, having a lot of, you know, authority to implement new changes that we weren't aware of, whether it's our, you know, dual credit FAST program or the dynamic funding model, which I still don't understand being able to estimate, you know, the value of some of these numbers based upon the value of a high school diploma versus what someone should make 10 years out. I still can't wrap my brain around those numbers, but. And another thing, you just triggered something at some of the meetings that we've had this past week with CAT, is that we're requesting negotiated rulemaking because to pass HB 8, we passed it because we wanted the legislature, you know, to strike while the iron's hot.

(43:52 - 44:14)
We really wanted to get this bill passed, but now we, the negotiated rulemaking was taken out. Now we're asking for it to be put back in so that we can monitor these kinds of things and give impact, give input on the impact that it's having on our colleges before it's top down. You know, we want to be able to have that ability to.

(44:14 - 44:44)
Well, in the standing advisory committee is representatives from colleges around the state and, you know, we think that they're doing great work and that, you know, they're upholding the principles that they think are best for all of the community colleges as a whole across the state. And there are things that benefit us that don't benefit others and things that benefit others that don't benefit us. We are in an area, for example, of having a strong tax base, but there are 24 colleges in the state of Texas that do not have strong tax bases.

(44:45 - 45:11)
And those are the ones who are getting the level up funding that we don't receive, but we think it's appropriate for them to receive that funding so that they have the ability to operate in especially remote areas with little to no industry. So we are happy. But when we're not, we'll tell you too.

(45:12 - 45:31)
We're going to be happy until we're not. And two, we don't want to, you know, many times we take what we hear as this is factual and this is what it is. Just to have those safeguards around it, there are some things that we still don't know.

(45:31 - 45:42)
So we have to operate with that level of flexibility. Every budget is a projection. Estimated projection.

(45:42 - 45:47)
All of them. It is. Because you don't know.

(45:48 - 45:59)
It's all uncertain. Okay. Anybody got anything else? Thank you, Annette.

(45:59 - 46:01)
All right. Thank you. Thank you, Annette.

(46:01 - 46:12)
All right. The only thing left on the agenda is matters of concern for future agenda. You got anything? Hearing none, we are adjourned.

(46:14 - 46:15)
Thank you. Thank you.