BLINN BOARD PASSES NO-NEW-REVENUE TAX RATE; BLINN TO RECEIVE EXTRA $7.4 MILLION IN STATE FUNDING
The Blinn Board of Trustees on Monday voted to adopt a no-new-revenue tax rate and heard details about how newly passed legislation is expected to provide millions of dollars in extra state funding to Blinn College.
Trustees set the tax rate at $0.0363 per $100 valuation, a decrease from the 2022 rate of $0.0377 per $100. Under the new rate, which will see Washington County taxpayers pay $36.30 per $100,000 of property value, the College will generate the same amount of revenue as 2022. Blinn was estimated to generate $2,252,899 in tax revenue upon passing last year’s rate.
The board also received a report from Executive Vice Chancellor Leighton Schubert, who provided a summary of the 88th Texas Legislature and House Bill 8. The bill shifted the state’s community college funding system from a contact hour model to one based on student outcomes such as transferring to a university or participating in a co-enrollment program.
Through the new system, and because of an increase in overall state funding for community colleges, Schubert said Blinn is projected to receive $32.75 million in state funding for Fiscal Year 2024, an increase of $7.4 million, or 29.2 percent, over last year.
In other business, trustees received a preliminary enrollment and housing report from Vice Chancellor for Student Services Dr. Becky McBride, showing an enrollment of 17,963 students for the fall semester. That total represents a 4.1 percent increase over fall 2022 enrollment and includes a 1.71 percent increase in student contact hours.
The fall 2023 enrollment includes 3,817 students at RELLIS, a 25.27 percent increase; 2,137 high school dual credit students, up 16.97 percent; 3,609 online students, up 4.22 percent; 2,119 Brenham Campus students, up 2.32 percent; 41 Sealy Campus students, a decrease of 4.65 percent; 6,092 students on the Bryan Campus, down 7.89 percent; and 59 Schulenburg Campus students, a decrease of 8.13 percent.
At the Brenham Campus, the Housing Department reported 1,610 resident students for an 82 percent fill rate of the campus’s 1,953 available beds. Last fall, Blinn housed 1,491 students.