The El Camino Planning and Budget Committee discussed the 2018-19 tentative budget assumptions from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, the Governor’s Proposed Budget and from the District’s Management Team at their meeting on Thursday, May 3.

David Mussaw, Academic Affairs Analyst, announced that the new funding formula may affect next year’s budget. The estimated fund balance will be approximately $23,506,206.

“This estimation is slight higher than previous adopted budgets. The estimated revenue including federal, state and local sources will be approximately $127,056,688,” Mussaw said.

The only revenue increases that are being projected is the (COLA), which has changed a few days ago. It started at 2.59%, and has now increased up to 2.71%.

El Camino is not expecting any growth of student enrollment for next year, but they are banking on having the same amount of enrollment as they have this year. So they intend to borrow up to their maximum budget amount, which is approximately $2 million.

The challenges El Camino will be facing in the future are the pension contributions such as, the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) increase and the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) increase. (PERS) will be increasing from 2.531% to 18.062% ($656,497) and (STRS) will be increasing from 1.8% to 16.280% ($996,897).

After this year, El Camino will be losing approximately $5 million they receive from Compton College since they have made plans to separate the two colleges.

The Planning and Budget Committee will have more information on other funds and detailed information for their next meeting. Next week, they plan on going over the operating funds such as, what they spent this year, what they hope to budget next year or if they want to move any money around.

Alex Ostrega, Director of Finance for Associated Student Organization (ASO) and Greg Toya, Adviser of (ASO) announced they are seeking the Planning and Budget Committee to endorse the student activity fee from $10 to $15.

“What we have learned is that the funding for our programs has started to put us into depths of spending mode,” Toya said.

(ASO) has reached out to similar community colleges within the area to find out how much their student activity fees are and the budget of their student government. They plan on comparing El Camino’s fees and budget to the eight colleges they have contacted.

“We hope to provide justification to see if we should move forward to increase it to $15,” Toya said.

By increasing the student activity fee to $15, it will give (ASO) the freedom to take on new initiatives, the increase will help maintain the current issues on campus and the Warrior Food Pantry. (ASO) has been able to hold more events campus for (ICC) clubs and fund the homecoming dance, which was a great success.

“It was a huge turnout. We had a DJ and it was catered. It was a really amazing experience and I never thought a community college would have such an amazing homecoming event,” Ostrega said.