Stan Geiger

TCC and the $11 Million Windfall

Previously, I wrote of Tulsa Community College's record of ever-increasing funding. The school's budget has gone from $41 million in '93 to $52 million in '97 to $74 million in '04 to over $90 million today.

So let's now take a look at where the $11 million surge in funding for the college between '93 and '97 went.

But first, let's take at look at where the money didn't go.

In the TCC budgets of old, there was a page labeled "Expenditures by Object," on which the total budget was broken down into particular sections. From those pages comes the following information.

In '93, the heading of Library Books and Periodicals showed a budget figure of about $364,000. In '97, that number was about $285,000. That's a nominal cut of nearly 22 percent over 5 years. In inflation-adjusted terms, the cut was even deeper. And I will note here---as I will several times going forward---a new campus in west Tulsa opened for business in 1996.

In '93, the heading of Property, Furniture and Equipment showed a figure of a little more than $1 million. In '97, that number was about $750,000. That's a nominal drop of about 25 percent. In inflation-adjusted terms, it was a greater drop. Again I point out, a new campus was opened in '96.

In '93, the heading of Supplies and Other Operating Expenses showed a figure of about $4.6 million. In '97, that number was up, to about $5.1 million. In nominal terms, funding for that object went up about a half a million dollars. In inflation-adjusted terms, it wasn't up at all. And then there's that addition of a new campus in '96.

My point here is, all those things educators use as excuses in their quests for more money---supplies, equipment, books and the like---didn't seem to be much of a budgeting priority when TCC found itself with $11 million more to spend.

Utility bills went up. In '93, the heading of Utilities showed a figure of slightly less than a million bucks. In '97, that number had grown to about $1.4 million.

That's not too surprising. The new campus in west Tulsa was added---as were other new buildings. Naturally, more space equals more money for utility companies.

TCC has been on a seemingly-inexplicable building binge since the early '90s. Now the school wants to borrow $76 million---against your property---so it can build a bunch of new stuff.

I have no tangible evidence, but I've had the opinion for some years now that TCC insiders---regents and executives---make money from TCC building, one way or another.

Now, where did the money go?

According to my calculations, about $8.9 million of the $11 million in new funding, roughly 81 percent, went to salaries and benefits for employees. A further examination, however, reveals that not all employees were on the receiving end of the deal. That tired phrase about a rising tide floating all boats is clearly shown to be a lie in what follows.

The heading of Fringe Benefits was a big winner. In '93, the allocation for benefits---retirements, insurance, expense accounts, free cars and such---was about $6.2 million. In '97, the number was about $9.2 million. In percentage terms, the number went up a whopping 48 percent in just 5 years. As a percentage of total expenditures, money for benefits went from 15 percent in '93 to 18 percent in '97.

Teachers did alright. Not great, but alright. The heading of Teaching Salaries in '93 showed a figure of about $14.5 million. In '97, the figure was about $17 million. That's a 5-year increase of about 17.5 percent. But, remember, a new campus was opened, which, presumably, meant the hiring of new teachers. So the growth in salaries for teachers---during my studied time span at least---seems to have been reasonably flat. And, as a percentage of total school expenditures, salaries for teachers actually went down, from 35 percent of the total budget in '93 to 33 percent in '97.

Working-class college employees didn't do well at all. The heading of Other Salaries and Wages showed a figure of about $9 million in '93. In '97, that number was down to about $8.5 million. Those numbers show a cut of nearly 6 percent. In inflation-adjusted terms, more. As a percentage of total expenditures, money for the working-class folks dropped form 22 percent in '93 to 16 percent in '97. And I'll make the point yet again, TCC had more property in '97 than it did in '93.

Ya know, I read a lot of ranting and raving from liberal bloggers about corporations and their screwing of working people. That ranting is true enough and fair enough. But I read nary a whimper from them about public education, which is just as bad.

Nobody wants to sit down on a mold-covered toilet. Everybody wants food when they want it. Everybody loves those well-manicured and well-maintained campuses. Clerks and secretaries are invaluable to education enterprises. But when it comes to money, it all goes to the higher-ups: the butt-scratching teachers and administrators.

Public-subsidized education---theoretically at least---isn't a profit-driven business. It is paid for with tax dollars. Yet working-class people are screwed just as badly in that business as they are in any other. How about some lip service about that, my liberal friends?

Now then, who was the really big winner in TCC's $11 million lottery jackpot? Well, that would be the administrators.

The heading of Professional Salaries (in English, that's administrator pay) showed a figure of about $4.3 million in '93. In '97, the figure was about $7.8 million. Those numbers show a staggering 5-year increase of nearly 80 percent. As a percentage of total expenditures, money that went to pay administrators went from 10 percent in '93 to 15 percent in '97. Of the $11 million in new funding, about 31 percent of it went to increasing the pay of administrators.

How good are you feeling, at this point, about voting to raise your taxes so TCC can have more money?

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