LINCOLN — The effects of Gov. Jim Pillen’s 5% spending reduction across all state agencies aren’t likely to hit Nebraska’s community colleges until mid-2027.
Michael Baumgartner, executive director of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education, said the 5% cut won’t impact the state’s Community College Future Fund — the largest share of state aid to such institutions, currently $285 million for fiscal year 2026-27.
The fund was created as a replacement for property tax revenues and contributed to a $6 million reduction in property taxes assessed in 2024, which totaled $5.3 billion.
Community colleges are also aided through a separate funding formula, which Baumgartner said will be affected by the 5% cut. He estimated that it would reduce the overall allotment by about $5.7 million of the $114 million total for 2026-27.
State law dictates that aid from the formula is distributed across Nebraska’s six community colleges and two tribal colleges in 10 monthly installments, skipping July and August. Because the actual appropriation has not changed, Baumgartner said, the 5% reduction won’t be incorporated into the installments unless the state Legislature approves it during the 2027 session.
This means community colleges may not see a reduction until their final monthly allotment in June 2027, depending on what lawmakers do.
Despite this, community college officials are already adjusting their annual budgets to fit a $5 million reduction from the last round of state budget adjustments approved in the 2026 legislative session.
Leah Barrett, president of Northeast Community College, said that resulted in a $780,000 reduction in state aid to the college. With the new 5% spending cut estimated to reduce the funding formula by $5.7 million, Barrett said, she is anticipating a slightly larger cut, likely around $800,000.
Barrett said she appreciated getting advance notice to prepare for more spending cuts, but also noted that Northeast Community College had been “proactive” in budget tightening for the past few years in anticipation of further state budget woes.
“We recognize that the state has been in a situation where there may be a shortfall,” Barrett said. “So we’ve been operating with that in mind for several years.”
Ryan Purdy, president of Mid-Plains Community College, said the $5 million cut led to an expected $420,000 reduction for the west central Nebraska college. He said he anticipates a similar reduction from the 5% cut, due to Mid-Plains seeing the largest enrollment increase among the state’s community colleges during the last academic year.
Purdy said the college’s board of governors has incorporated the $420,000 cut in its upcoming annual budget set to be approved in September. But he said college officials typically begin working on the next budget proposal in January or February, so the governor’s spending memo — which came in early July — was too late to be added to the current proposal.
As with most higher education institutions, Barrett said Northeast Community College’s biggest expense is staffing. She said the college has reduced its personnel about 6% over the last three years. It currently employs 566 people, both full-time, part-time and adjunct.
Purdy said the same has been happening at Mid-Plains — five positions have been eliminated through attrition in the last year, and one open position was changed from full-time to part-time. He said the additional cuts will likely push college officials to look at vacant positions to eliminate, as well as technology, software and other resources that may not serve the college’s purposes.
“It’s forcing us to evaluate everything we do to see what is serving the students, what is helping grow enrollment,” Purdy said.
The staffing reductions have already affected how Northeast Community College operates. Barrett said a minimum class size policy was implemented, in hopes of gauging how many educators are needed to serve its student population.
The cuts coming to Mid-Plains will likely total less than $1 million, which Purdy said may not seem that steep to larger institutions. But for them, he said, it would amount to a 3.5% overall budget reduction for the college, which operates with roughly $35 million in revenue each year.
Barrett said she hopes Pillen and state lawmakers realize how much of an economic driver Nebraska’s community colleges are. She noted that about 91% of the state’s community college graduates stay in Nebraska for work, and both she and Purdy said the continued reductions make it more difficult to remain operating at the same level.
“We want to keep making those contributions,” Barrett said. “So the cuts that we take impact our ability to do that at the level that is our standard.”
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