Del Mar College is considering a fiscal year 2025 budget with an increased tax rate and plans to offer salary increases to employees and cover deferred maintenance and equipment needs.
The Del Mar College Board of Regents will hold a public hearing on the 2024-25 budget and tax rate on August 27. The council is expected to approve both at the meeting.
This week, staff presented a possible budget scenario to the regents.
The college expects a 2% increase in enrollment and an increase in property tax revenue. The budget plans include a $2 tuition increase for students who live in the Del Mar College district.
If approved, the budget would include an increase in the property tax rate for maintenance and operations, resulting in a total tax rate of $0.26174 per $100 of assessed value, up from $0.237002 last year. This would generate nearly $10 million in additional property tax revenue and represents a 2.15% increase over the non-new tax rate.
The overall tax rate for Del Mar College has decreased in recent years, meaning the potential tax rate for Scenario A is still lower than the tax rate between 2020-21 and 2022-23.
With an average home value of $245,920 in 2023, the annual property tax would be $644 in tax year 2025, compared to $532 in tax year 2024. For homeowners calculating their property tax bill, the actual amount they pay also depends on whether the value of their property has increased or decreased. Property values are determined by county tax assessors.
Regents were also presented with four possible salary and benefit increase options. Each option included a 3% increase for non-exempt part-time employees, with the increase percentage for other employee types varying under each option.
The lowest salary increase option, which provides for increases of 2% for full-time faculty, 5% for adjunct and over-employment full-time faculty, 2% for exempt and exempt full-time staff, and 3% for non-exempt part-time staff, would cost the college over $2 million.
The highest salary increase, which would provide a 6% increase for full-time faculty, 5% for adjunct and super-tenant staff, 5% for exempt staff, 6% for non-exempt full-time staff, and 3% for non-exempt part-time staff, would cost the college over $4.1 million.
During this week’s presentation, staff recommended a 9% overall spending increase, including the highest salary increase option and increases in non-salary expenses such as equipment and maintenance. This would increase spending from over $115 million in fiscal year 2024 to over $125 million in fiscal year 2025.
In 2023, Texas will update its community college funding model to more closely tie state contributions to outcomes.
Del Mar College President Mark Escamilla said this change in the financial model supports more types of students than were previously accounted for in the formula.
“A student is a student and a student at Del Mar College,” Escamilla said. “We value all students equally. And that’s why the amounts have been changed to recognize, fund and support those students.”
Compared to other large community colleges, Del Mar College performed well on the results, achieving a higher overall outcome score in the formula than Laredo College, Tyler Junior College, Amarillo College, Central Texas College, South Plains College, North Central Texas College, and Navarro College.
In particular, Del Mar College performed well compared to other colleges in the areas of associate degrees in high-demand fields, institutional qualifications leading to licenses in high-demand fields, dual credit outcomes, and career-ready skills awards.
However, many comparable programs outperformed the college for certificates in high-demand fields and associate degrees in less-demand fields.
According to the presentation, the college plans to spend additional funds in line with the results-based formula to, among other things, increase the graduation rate of all students, optimize student life, and address maintenance issues and IT infrastructure.
These include initiatives such as providing grants to educators who develop free open educational resources for students and paying faculty stipends to public school teachers in grades K-12 who teach dual-credit programs for college.
The regents will make a final decision on the budget on August 27.
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