By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
In seeking only its second millage increase in more than 40 years, Southwestern Michigan College Tuesday asks local taxpayers to boost the operating levy from 3 (reduced to 2.54 mills through Headlee Amendment rollbacks) to 4.5 mills.
All municipalities in Cass County, plus Keeler and Hamilton townships in Van Buren County, are part of SMC's service district and vote on the millage proposal.
Passage of the proposal would generate some $2.2 million and offset what President Dr. David M. Mathews called the "worst state budget problems in the history of the college."
To contain costs, SMC already froze salaries, employees are paying more for health care, two vice president positions were scrapped, tuition has been increased and low-enrollment programs were eliminated to redirect revenue to enhance academic support and technology access for students. Property taxes account for about 25 percent of revenue - one of the lowest percentages in Michigan, where the community college average is better than 40 percent.
Benefits of SMC to its tax-paying community total $77.4 million, according to a study completed by M. Henry Robison and Kjell A. Christophersen of CCbenefits Inc. That contribution is roughly equivalent to 2,800 jobs.
SMC faculty and staff generate additional earnings of $13.6 million annually - comparable to 470 jobs.
CCbenefits Inc. last November applied a comprehensive economic model the company developed with funding from the Association for Community College Trustees to measure SMC's community impact.
In accounting for $77.4 million of all regional earnings, SMC enriches the lives of students and increases their lifetime incomes. For every full-time year attended they can be expected to earn an additional $4,259 per year.
SMC benefits taxpayers by generating increased tax revenues from a larger economy. The college promotes economic development by providing employers with skilled workers needed to compete in a global economy.
The study also indicated that a more highly educated workforce reduces demand for taxpayer-supported social services.
Throughout 2004, SMC worked systematically to expand its capacity to meet the health care and human service needs of the community.
SMC completed the first phase of the School of Nursing and Human Services "Center of Excellence" project.
This included renovating classroom space, creating an additional health care lab and approval from the state to begin a new "Paramedic to RN" curriculum providing a career path fo paramedics to become registered nurses.
The Michigan Board of Nursing reported that 100-percent of SMC nursing program graduates who attempted the state licensure exam passed on their first try during seven of the past eight quarters of reporting.
That extraordinary accomplishment compares to a national average pass rate of 85 percent. Moreover, SMC nursing graduates' 100-percent pass rate also compares with an approximately 86-percent pass rte of four-year nursing program graduates in Michigan on exactly the same exam.
The SMC Foundation purchased a SimMan to provide state-of-the-art training opportunities for SMC nursing and allied health students.
Students' academic success came against a backdrop of unprecedented state budget cuts to SMC.
In 2001, the college was appropriated about $7 million in state aid.
By 2004, state aid to the college was whittled to $5.9 million.
Additionally, Economic Development Job Training (EDJT) grant funding to SMC fell from a peak of $698,000 four years ago to nothing each of the last two years.
The course the college would like to chart in the future has been carefully calibrated with community input from surveys, a Friends of the College meeting and personal contact SMC officials have with the more than 80 groups that used campus facilities during the last year, from blood drives and the county spelling bee to Dowagiac's Dogwood Fine Arts Festival, the Minority Coalition, Michigan State Police and foster parent training.
SMC continues to aggressively pursue funding for creation of an Information Technology (IT) certification center.
Goal of this center will be to provide IT training and certification beyond what is currently available anywhere in the region. This center will be designed to serve individual students, businesses and the community.
SMC is also seeking additional revenue sources to allow the second phase of nursing and human services offerings, as well as for expanded bachelor's degree offerings.
As President Mathews has said, "The effective restoration of one-hall mill and an additional mill of support that will be voted on (Tuesday) will allow the college to move forward in the initiatives so critical to the future of our community. If approved, this will be only the second millage increase in the college's 40-year history. With this funding, the high quality and broad scope of programs that the community has come to expect from SMC can be maintained for years to come."