Northwest College is going to be able to spend nearly $2.5 million more than last year’s budget without using any reserves or carryover funds thanks to community colleges being well funded by the Legislature. 

NWC is budgeting $35.49 million in expenses and revenue for the upcoming fiscal year, up from just over $33 million last year.

Vice President for Business Services Burt Reynolds said even the local appropriation, which had initially forecast to be down, has been revised upward, meaning he was able to project an additional $100,000 in revenue over the earlier budget projections. 

“We were able to adjust the budgets based on the department’s needs and based on the overwhelming support that we received from the Legislature this year,” Reynolds said. “To that end, this is the first year of the biennium for the Legislature and we were very pleased with the outcomes of this legislative session and very grateful to our legislators for the support that they showed to the community colleges.”

The majority of the revenue boon is going toward “needed” raises for staff, Reynolds said. All staff will receive either a 3.5% or $3,500 raise for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. 

He said the college is putting roughly $800,000 toward raises after NWC received $700,000 per year for the next two years from the state as part of its $14 million award for the biennium for compensation for the community colleges. 

“We have more money going directly into salaries and benefits,” President Lisa Watson said, “which brings us in line with what we should be paying our people closer to in terms of other market opportunities that an employee might have.”

Trustees received a first reading of the draft budget at the June 8 meeting and will be asked to approve the budget on second reading at the July meeting.