The Barton Community College Board of Trustees heard Tuesday that the college may need to dip into cash reserves for the Fiscal Year 2026 operational budget but it won’t be asking local taxpayers for more money than last year.

Vice President of Administration Mark Dean reviewed the operational budget and the published budget, which appears in the Great Bend Tribune as a legal notice and sets the local tax request.

Barton expected to use cash reserves last year but instead ended FY2025 with an increase of $33,660 in its cash reserves. Dean reported the increase was a result of:

• Increase in enrollment resulting in a 12.5% increase in credit-hour production

• Increase in SB155 reimbursement. This is state money that pays tuition for high school students in some college courses. The state did not raise its reimbursement rate but more students took advantage of the program.

• The college received more delinquent tax revenue than it has in recent years.

For FY2026, Dean expects a $36,989 decrease in revenue and an $862,454 increase in expenditures over last year’s operational budget. 

This includes increases in costs for health insurance, Social Security taxes and other benefits.

The budget includes a $207,776 decrease in state aid and a $786,953 decrease in additional state funding for special projects such as capital outlay, business and industry apprenticeships, student support and deferred maintenance. If there is a 5% growth in enrollment, tuition (including SB155 tuition) will increase by $730,000.

The budget does not provide an allowance for wage changes and it reflects the reduction of 15 full-time positions, which has already taken place for FY2026. Dean noted, “68% of our costs are people.”

Operational budgets will be cut when possible, but Mike Johnson, chairman of the board, commented, “This year we trimmed the budget significantly.”

Bottom line

The operational budget includes a planned deficit of $1.27 million at the end of FY2026, Dean reported. “Of course, this will depend on enrollment growth and responsible spending throughout the year.”

He added, “If we continue to see positive growth, it should help.”

Cash reserves are $19,684,675 and are projected to drop to $18,413,223.

The proposed operational budget remains revenue neutral for tax revenue.

Published budget

There was a consensus on the board to approve the draft of the published budget that Dean reviewed at the meeting. No official action will be taken until the next board of trustees business meeting at July 22. 

The intent is to remain revenue-neutral. That means the college will ask taxpayers for $9,597,007, close to the amount levied last year ($9,597,301). Barton County’s estimated valuation increased approximately $18,616,657 this past year, mainly due to increases in real estate, utilities and personal property. Therefore, the RNR (revenue-neutral rate) for FY2026 was provided by the County and is 27.166. The current mill levy is 28.678.

Chairman Johnson said, “So based on this current budget,  we’re going to be seeking $260 less in tax revenue than we got last year. How do we avoid the issue we got last year, where we were RNR, reduced the mill levy, and because of valuation (increasing), we actually still gained – what was it – $10,000 more revenue? But some in the county, other elected officials, made a really big deal about that.”

“We receive from the County a budget sheet which tells us what the RNR is,” Dean said. “The problem is, between when we publish our budget and when it’s actually certified in November, there are penalties, there are entities that protest, and all of that happens between now and November; we have no control over that, so we don’t know what’s actually going to happen.”

He added, “I can’t say that we’ll have a down arrow or an up arrow. I can’t guarantee that.”

“The numbers ... are basically educated numbers,” trustee Gary Burke said, adding he doesn’t propose trying to guess a different number. That would be “like throwing darts with a blindfold on.”

Trustee Dale Maneth said he understands what the college is doing but wants to be able to justify it to the taxpayers. What would happen, he asked, if the college cut its budget by $500,000?

Burke responded. “Take that half a million dollars out of your budget and pretty soon your product suffers. We have an obligation to the community to charge them a fair price, but we also have an obligation to the community to put out a product that we can all be proud of. I think whenever you look around at all the things that we accomplish in every aspect of the college, I think we can be proud of the product that we put out in this institution.”

That is the point, Maneth said.

“In the last five minutes (of discussion), we created more transparency on why we’re doing what we’re doing. What we were talking about earlier doesn’t mean anything to the average person. It really doesn’t. ... We are a significant employer in this county, and that’s a part of this deal. We have to be able to carry it forward and defend it.”