Campbell County college plan headed to Legislature
Campbell County college plan headed to Legislature
By Jake Goodrick
Gillette News Record
Via Wyoming News Exchange
GILLETTE — Campbell County’s application to create its own community college district has cleared its first hurdle, and now it’s on to the state Legislature.
In a unanimous decision Friday afternoon, the Wyoming Community College Commission voted 7-0 to approve a new community college district in Campbell County centered around Gillette College.
“Essentially, all of them decided (Campbell County) should have the opportunity to move forward,” WCCC Commissioner Gregg Blikre said after the meeting Friday. “It gives Campbell County citizens a chance to form their own district and have a say in what their education system for higher education will be.”
With the WCCC’s approval, the hopes of a new community college district lies in the hands of the state Legislature, which will have to pass a bill through the state House and Senate to move the issue to a public vote.
A desire for autonomy emerged as a prevailing theme throughout Campbell County’s application process.
Essentially, the issue was “one of self-determination and that Campbell County, should it accept the tax, would have the right to make its own decisions on what it’s workforce needs,” said state Sen. Jeff Wasserburger, R-Gillette, on Saturday.
Amid economic uncertainty and talks of diversifying the local and state economies, those in favor of the new district cite the county’s ability to implement curricula and make decisions based on what its future workforce may dictate.
“The college will be much more quickly able to, and much more likely able to, bring forth educational programs that meet the needs of our community,” Blikre said. “The people in Campbell County can decide to do what our county needs.”
In a time of statewide budget cuts, concern for how the formation of new community college district would affect funding of the other seven community college districts was a main topic thoughout the application process.
“The only contextual issue here is funding, in my opinion,” Northern Wyoming Community College District President Walter Tribley said at the WCCC meeting.
“Both for our new college district, that it doesn’t just get a toehold because Campbell County has some one-time money, but that it gets a toehold, a foothold, a leghold, an armhold and becomes a sparkling member of our community college system,” he said.
Tribley said that his district stands to lose about $3 million if Gillette College were to leave and form one of its own, as opposed to the initial $2 million projected loss given earlier in the process.
“I just don’t want you to be surprised if Northern Wyoming Community College District is going to need to have some separate line-item funding during this transitional period,” Tribley told the commissioners. “Perhaps the new Gillette College might need that as well.”
The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education conducted a third-party survey to provide context and an outside perspective on the Gillette College proposal. It found that a new community college district in Campbell County would be a “net positive” for the other districts.
Because of the funding model used by the Wyoming Community College District, the survey determined that the influx of local revenue from Campbell County would reduce Gillette College’s need for state funding and leave more for the other districts.
The survey also concluded that the Northern Wyoming Community College District would project to lose about $2 million, but that doesn’t mean a straight slash of its bottom line.
“They won’t have as much as expense,” Blikre said. “Yes, they’ll have less money, but they’ll also have less expense.”
Blikre said the commission came to an understanding that the Northern Wyoming Community College District, after losing Gillette College, would operate with a smaller budget but also would be able to compensate for that by no longer having the expense that Gillette College carried.
“As a whole, all the community colleges are not funded as well as they need to be by the state and that’s a reality of our economic condition,” Blikre said.
With the Gillette College application clearing the Wyoming Community College Commission, the state Legislature now controls its fate.
This week, the Select Committee on Community College Funding Wasserburger co-chairs is going over two bills. One would allow Gillette College to become an independent district and the other would clarify and change the existing community college statute.
Current statute dictates that a community college district must tax 4 mills to receive state funding. Because of Campbell County’s assessed value standing far higher than other counties in the state, the committee is mulling over whether to allow a district to tax fewer mills on the condition it will not receive state funding.
“If we don’t receive any state funds, we’re totally self-sufficient within our own county and we believe that we would levy much less than 4 mills,” Wasserburger said.
He said the district would require closer to 2 mills of tax if the new bill would pass, making it easier to pass a vote in Campbell County.
If the committee passes the bill, it will then move to the the upcoming legislative session early next year. Even if it does not pass that, Wasserburger said he and Rep. Eric Barlow, R-Gillette, would sponsor the bill in the next session themselves.
“It doesn’t matter what happens,” Wasserburger said. “We’re carrying it. I think it’s positive from both committees, but if it hits a rocky road in one of those committees, Barlow and I are still going to carry it.”
Once it reaches the next legislative session, Wasserburger is bullish on its chances of going all the way to a public vote.
“I think we’re going to have strong support in the House and Senate,” Wasserburger said.
Once clearing the House, Senate and being signed by the governor, the bill would then circle back to the Campbell County Commission, which would decide on the language to use when it appears on a ballot for Campbell County voters, Wasserburger said.
The Wyoming Community College Commission’s decision was a big step forward for Campbell County’s movement of creating a district of its own.
“They found that Gillette College is essentially a standalone college without a governing board,” Wasserburger said. “At the end of the day, the decision was the money is there. Campbell County’s assessed valuation is more than enough to fund the college and there is all kinds of community support for the school.”
If the momentum carries forward, a vote on the formation of the Gillette College Community College District may be coming sometime next year.