community college lobbying

NCCBI Lobbies for Community Colleges

Full-court lobbying by NCCBI to help the community colleges is paying off with the endorsement by legislative leaders of a novel plan that will produce $113.7 million over the next two years to buy new equipment that will be used in enhanced job-training programs.

The plan essentially diverts part of the unemployment insurance taxes paid by employers into a special fund the General Assembly will earmark for the community colleges. As outlined in legislation approved by the Senate Finance Committee May 26, the plan will work this way:

Unemployment insurance taxes would be reduced 20 percent for most employers, effective Jan. 1.
Concurrently, a new “training and re-employment contribution” tax will be levied on employers equal to 20 percent of their unemployment insurance tax. The initiative thus will be tax-neutral for most employers.
The proceeds will be credited to a non-reverting account managed by the legislature, with 80 percent of the money appropriated to the Department of Community Colleges. The rest, about $28.4 million over two years, will go to the Employment Security Commission to cover its cost of collecting and administering the new contribution, and to pay for ESC employment services aimed at returning people to work sooner, and thus deminishing demand on the unemployment insurance fund.
The initiative will sunset in two years.

“This is a win-win situation for the Community College System and the business community,” NCCBI President Phil Kirk said in endorsing the plan. “We are pleased at the high level of cooperation among various state government agencies and the leadership of the General Assembly which will allow this much-needed infusion of funding for our community colleges. The working people of our state will be the true beneficiaries if the General Assembly approves this plan.”

Most employers would see little or no change in their quarterly unemployment insurance bills. However, the 2 percent of businesses that own money to the fund would see increases ranging from 1 percent to about 20 percent.

“In the past few years, we have had growing concerns about the funding levels and ability of the community colleges to continue to provide the worker training that is so essential to providing a trained workforce,” NCCBI Vice President of Governmental Affairs Leslie Bevacqua told the Senate Finance Committee. “Funding for the community colleges has become a major focus of NCCBI this year and is one of the top priorities identified by our Executive Committee,” she added.

Increased support for the community colleges is a top objective of NCCBI Chairman Phil Phillips, who has personally lobbied the General Assembly for greater funding. Senator Jim Broyhill, chairman of NCCBI's Economic Development Committee, also spent a day in the legislature lobbying for community colleges.

At its quarterly meeting May 25, the NCCBI Executive Committee was briefed on the legislative initiative by N.C. Community Colleges System President Martin Lancaster, and voted to endorse it. The full Senate voted 45-0 on second-reading Thursday to approve the legislation, H. 275 ESC/Unemployment Tax Changes.

North Carolina's unemployment insurance account in the Federal Unemployment Trust Fund is one of the largest in the nation with a balance of $1.26 billion. The state has another $200 million in reserve for unemployment insurance. The money is used for workers who lose their jobs.

A 1997 survey of the state's 58 community colleges found a backlog of $131 million in technology and equipment needs.

NCCBI intensified its drive for improved state aid for the community colleges last month when Phil Phillips, the GE Capital First Factors executive who is this year's NCCBI chairman, pressed the case in personal visits with several legislators. Phillips met with the House and Senate leadership as well as the co-chairs of the appropriations committees in both chambers. Phillips then lunched in the legislature's Members Only dining room, where he huddled with several lawmakers.

Phillips, who was accompanied by Lancaster, has made increased aid for community colleges one of his goals as NCCBI chairman.

His visit to the General Assembly comes a week after former Senator Jim Broyhill, chairman of NCCBI's Economic Development Committee, accompanied Lancaster on visits to the General Assembly. As a former secretary of the N.C. Department of Commerce, Broyhill told legislators that many industries located in North Carolina because of the community colleges' training programs.

Legislators that Phillips met with included House Speaker Jim Black of Matthews, House Majority Leader Phil Baddour of Goldsboro, Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight of Manteo, Senate Majority Leader Roy Cooper of Rocky Mount and Senate Minority Leader Patrick Ballantine of Wilmington.

Phillips also met with Senate Technology Committee Chair Eric Reeves of Raleigh, Senate Appropriations Committee Co-chairs Aaron Plyler of Monroe and Beverly Perdue of New Bern, Senate Finance Committee Co-chair David Hoyle of Gastonia, House Appropriations Committee Co-chairs David Redwine of Ocean Isle Beach, and Ruth Easterling of Charlotte, House Finance Committee member Lyons Gray of Winston-Salem and former House Speaker Harold Brubaker of Asheboro.

At the meetings with Lancaster and Phillips were NCCBI President Phil Kirk and Vice President of Governmental Affairs Leslie Bevacqua.

Phillips noted that it was a bit unusual for he and Kirk to be lobbying the General Assembly on behalf of community colleges. As a member of the UNC Board of Governors, Phillips has often spoken to legislators on university matters. And Kirk, as chairman of the State Board of Education, speaks for K-12. Kirk does know his way around the issues, though, from formerly serving as vice chair of the State Board of Community Colleges.

For the two of them to be pushing aid for community colleges underscores the important role the community colleges are playing in providing a trained work force. The back-to-back visits by Phillips and Broyhill show how strongly the business community supports community colleges.