The university’s board of directors voted 4-1 on Wednesday night to approve both a 3% increase in property taxes and a $367.5 million budget for fiscal 2024, which begins July 1. Luis L. Gonzalez voted against both.

For nearly a decade, community colleges across Arizona have received minimal state funding, accounting for about 2% of the PCC budget. Property taxes account for 37% of income, with the rest coming from a combination of tuition and fees. Grants, Contracts, Financial Aid. and college equity.

The tax hike will give PCC about $4 million in additional funding to cover operating expenses this year, but it will cost the average homeowner less than the price of a meal at a restaurant. Without the increase, owners of $100,000 worth of property would pay $124.29 in taxes annually to help PCC. With the new price increase, the same property owner will pay $128.02 a year.

Compared to nine other Arizona counties that support community colleges, Pima County has the fourth-lowest property tax rate in the state.

PCC Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration David Bee said, “I assure you, this $4 million is very important to support the university’s future operations.”

Raising wages, capital construction and infrastructure, and advancing the university’s strategic plan are some of the top spending priorities for the coming year.

Last year, the Board of Directors approved a new salary structure designed to reward employees on a scale that takes into account length of service and level of experience.

$6.7 million of the new budget will go to salaries and wages, according to Bee’s presentation to the board on Wednesday.

Nearly $60 million will go toward deferred maintenance, capital costs, and continued building of Centers for Excellence. This is the vision of outgoing Board Chairman Lee Lambert to expand employee training opportunities at PCC for in-demand careers. Lambert will retire on July 31 to become president of the Foothills De Anza Community College School District near Silicon Valley, California.

Shortly before he announced his resignation, PCC opened the latest phase of the project, a $35 million, 100,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing building.

The Centers for Excellence’s recent budget shows that the university will need $43.4 million in future funding to fully complete the project, which could still take several years. There is a nature. The proposal estimates that approximately $20 million will be required in fiscal year 2024 to fund ongoing and new projects associated with the center.

Next year, the board will consider how to proceed with the three historic but dilapidated hotels owned by the university on Drachman Street north of downtown Tucson. The purchase was approved several years ago with the goal of rehabilitating and adaptively reusing the building, securing $10 million to start the project.

However, recent cost estimates put the project proposal approved at the last board meeting at $35.7 million. It is unclear whether the new board will vote to fund the renovation.

Speaker Teresa Riel said she would not make a decision for at least another six months while she continued to collect public comments.

Riel also said the board’s current focus is on hiring a new prime minister. At Wednesday’s meeting, the board postponed the appointment of an interim prime minister and did not reveal an exact plan for finding a permanent replacement for Mr. Lambert.

But the board passed a budget of $367.5 million, so decide exactly how much money you want to allocate to these two major construction projects, in addition to all other projects and initiatives at the university. You will be able to

Greg Taylor, who joined the board in January and voted in favor of both the recent tuition and property tax hikes, says investing in admissions is one of his top priorities next year. rice field.

According to the latest information, Report of the Arizona Comptroller GeneralPCC has experienced a significant decline in enrollment over the past decade, from 19,514 full-time students enrolled in 2013 to 11,563 in 2022. Economic uncertainty due to the pandemic contributed in part to the impact (PCC lost more than 5,000 students between his 2013 and 2019). , However, the number of subscribers is gradually recovering.

Professor Taylor said, “We certainly expect universities to do something important on the financial side of the equation.” taxpayers and students and their families despite serving significantly fewer students than before. “

Taylor said the “only way” to vote for further property tax and tuition hikes next year is if the PCC does “something meaningful and real on the[financial]side of the equation.” added.