By Adam Studzinski
NORMAL – The Heartland Community College Board of Trustees approved the school’s fiscal year 2017 budget Tuesday night.
The budget is balanced, with about $32.9 million in expenditures. President Rob Widmer said it was difficult to piece together, especially because Heartland isn’t sure what sort of state funding it will get past December. He added absent some state revenue, there are many things the college isn’t doing.
“We’re not investing in our employees in terms of professional development. We’re not putting as many materials in the classroom as we would like too,” said Widmer. “We’re not leaving our library and computer labs open as long as we would like to have them open to serve our students.”
Vice President of Business Services Doug Minter explained there are also capital projects in the budget which might have to be put on hold if more state funding isn’t approved.
“We have ventilation projects for safety in a lab, where there might be construction dust or dust from sculptures,” Minter said.
Roughly 7 percent of the budget revenues are planned to come from the state. Widmer said that’s typical for what they’ve seen in recent years.
Adam Studzinski can be reached at adam.studzinski@cumulus.com.
