Rural lawmakers could be tough opposition for community college proposal

Gov. C.L. "Butch” Otter's plan to lower the biggest obstacle to building the first new Idaho community college in four decades is running into opposition from lawmakers on a conservative-leaning panel that often slams attempts to make boosting taxes easier.

Otter favors lowering the voter-approval requirement for a new community college taxing district to 60 percent of voters, from 66 2/3 percent. Such districts levy property taxes to pay for schools and colleges.

The Republican governor's proposal also includes a promise of at least $5 million in state assistance to new community colleges.

Groups including the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce want to start a community college in the growing region that includes Ada, Canyon and Gem counties. They'd be ready to put it to a vote by May 2008.

But the bill to lower the so-called “supermajority” to 60 percent would first require at least 10 votes in the tax-wary, 18-member Revenue and Taxation Committee, where virtually all tax-related legislation starts. The panel includes tax hawks such as Rep. Lenore Barrett, R-Challis, and its new chairman, Rep. Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, who say they won't back the governor's plan.

“It should be a higher standard,” Barrett told The Associated Press. “He's only the governor. I represent a constituency that's rural.”

There are currently just two Idaho community colleges, in Coeur d'Alene and Twin Falls, while Idaho's three universities and one state college also offer some professional-technical courses. Community college classes cost as little as half those at a state university like Boise State University, the University of Idaho in Moscow or Idaho State University in Pocatello.

“Idaho has an impressive high school graduation rate, but the percentage of Idaho high school graduates who go on to college is among the nations lowest,” Otter said last week during his State of the State speech. Just 45 percent of Idaho high schoolers go directly to a college _ the fourth-lowest rate in the nation.

Many lawmakers remain optimistic the legislative foundation for a new college in southeastern Idaho will come this year.

“It's been an issue for 20 years,” said Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise. “Now, you've got the perfect storm.”

That “storm” includes several factors. The region around Boise is growing and has become one of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas without its own community college. The private education-oriented J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation has offered $15 million in seed money for a Boise-area community college.

Meanwhile, Boise State wants to shed its community college and professional and technical school functions. President Bob Kustra favors moving community college classes to the BSU-West campus in Nampa, while shifting its Larry G. Selland College of Applied Technology to a site in Meridian, a suburb west of Boise.

“There are now 1,200 students” taking classes at the Selland college, Kustra said. “It could probably be seven times that size, if it had the space.”

Otter's $5 million promise of state support also has placated lawmakers whose districts include North Idaho College in Coeur d'Alene, started in 1933, and Twin Falls' College of Southern Idaho, founded in 1964. They had feared the $22 million their schools currently get from the state would be cannibalized by a new school.

The existing community colleges are also paid for with property taxes and student fees and are run by local boards.

“We have two community colleges that are already operating effectively,” said Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert. “And those of us who have studied community colleges know the local governance of the community college is inherent in their long-term success.”

Backers of a new community college in southwestern Idaho fear the region's economy will suffer without one.

Ray Stark, a lobbyist for the Boise Metro Chamber, also says some out-of-state companies – he wouldn't name them – that had considered the region for relocation moved elsewhere. They decided the existing education system wouldn't produce enough trained workers, Stark said.

Still, a vote to create a new college won't come until the supermajority is lowered to 60 percent, he said.

“We have the craziest community college system in the country,” Stark said. “The best we can hope for is to create our own community college, but we need the Legislature's help for us to be successful.”

Under Otter's plan, votes requiring 60 percent approval would be scheduled in the May or November elections in years of statewide elections. Otherwise, the requirement would be 66 2/3 percent. There's a competing plan from a summer interim committee to allow the threshold to be lowered on other legal Idaho election dates in February, May, August or November.