College creating cut list

The Coast Community College District scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday to discuss cutting $20 million from the district’s 2009-10 budget as well as a host of other possible state cuts in student-aid programs and fee hikes.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to cut $781 million in community college funding statewide and not reimburse some lost property tax revenues will take roughly $20 million from the district, which includes OCC and Coastline Community College, with campuses in Costa Mesa, and Golden West College in Huntington Beach, officials said.

In addition to those cuts, the governor has proposed eliminating the CalGrant program and other sources of student financial aid, and the legislative analyst’s office has proposed tripling community college tuition from $20 per unit to $50 or $60 per unit.

“We certainly would not minimize the fact that these proposals are going to cause difficulty at the district level,” said state Deputy Director of Finance H.D. Palmer. “That said, the scope and severity of this recession has forced us to put a variety of difficult proposals on the table that we wouldn’t have done even when we did the budget back in February.”

Palmer said the CalGrant cuts, in particular, would have been “unthinkable” four months ago.

District officials said the state’s cuts come at the worst possible time because state universities are rejecting more students, and unemployed workers are heading back to school.

District financial analysts have been compiling a list of potential cuts to make up the projected $20 million in lost revenue. District spokeswoman Martha Parham said it included measures ranging in severity, but the list will not be released until Wednesday’s meeting.

Coast Community College District Board Chairman Jim Moreno criticized the state measures, saying they “balanced the budget on the backs of our students.”