There were no comments from the public when Barton Community College’s Board of Trustees held hearings Tuesday on the notice to exceed the Revenue Neutral Rate and the published budget.

There were questions from Trustee Dale Maneth during the budget hearing, and Maneth voted against approving the RNR resolution and the published budget. He did not elaborate on his vote.

Vice President of Administration Mark Dean provided information during both hearings, repeating what he has shared before about the notice to exceed the RNR.

“We are not exceeding the RNR,” he said during the RNR hearing. “The published budget is actually less than it was last year by almost $16,000. The mill levy will go down (to 28.634 mills).”

During the budget hearing, Dean commented that the mill levy the college is requesting comes close to matching Barton’s 2005 mill levy.

“The overall trend has been downward over the last eight years,” said Mike Johnson, chairman of the board of trustees.

Maneth said he requested that the board see the entire budget, not just the one-page budget that is published as a legal notice in the Great Bend Tribune. He noted that on page 5, “total expenditures exceed last year by $15 million,” but the actual operating budget approved by the board exceeds last year’s expenditures by closer to $1.5 million.

“The reason we inflate (total expenditures) is to avoid budget violations,” Dean said. He gave an example where a storm caused millions of dollars in damage and the college received insurance money but could not spend it because the budget was too low. The college would not be able to exceed the amount in the published budget without republishing the budget and repeating the process that includes publishing a legal notice and holding a public hearing.

“Every community college inflates for that reason – to avoid future conflicts,” Dean said.