Although Harper College’s proposed $84.4 million budget shows a $6.9 million deficit on paper, that negative figure should be erased mentally when school officials explain the document at Thursday night’s board meeting.
Most of the shortfall is attributable to a long-anticipated, one-time expense for construction of a theater and convention centers, scheduled to break ground this fall, said Judy Thorson, vice president for administrative services.
For years, Harper has been holding aside nearly $6 million to add to about $7 million in state matching funds, which were received this spring to pay for the $13 million project, she said.
Harper plans to withdraw the money from a special fund after its expenditure has been accounted for in the budget, Thorson said.
“It’s kind of like taking money out of a savings account,” she said.
The rest of the deficit appears in other funds that eventually are reimbursed by state and federal sources that run on different fiscal cycles, she said.
In all, nine funds are identified in the budget.
One major accomplishment of the budget’s authors was balancing expenses and revenues in the $45 million education fund, which pays for teachers’ salaries and other day-to-day instruction-related costs.
Last year, the education fund was approved with a $2 million deficit, a practice that new President Robert Breuder would not accept in this spending plan.
The board is scheduled to vote on the budget June 30.
