CVTC budget keeps climbing

Keighla Schmidt Leader-Telegram Staff

The amount of money Chippewa Valley Technical College spends each year has significantly risen over the past decade and continues to rise. The $79 million proposed budged for 2007-08 — up 5.47 percent from $74.9 million in 2006-07 — is increasing due to health insurance costs for its employees and growth in the student population. The CVTC board of directors will meet to look over college spending at 6 p.m. Thursday. (Maybe as a taxpayer you should be there and ask some questions) CVTC President Bill Ihlenfeldt said the driving force of the increased budget is health care coverage. Over $7 million of the budget is spent on health insurance; 85 percent of the CVTC budget is personnel costs, he said. 'It's just going to get worse,' Ihlenfeldt said. 'It's become a real burden for public and private institutions, not just technical colleges.' Health care cost for CVTC have risen by 18 percent this year. The proposed combined levy, $31.7 million, a 3.9 percent increase from 2006-07, comes to the institution as it is consistently increasing its student population by 5 to 15 percent annually. It's a growth rate faster than any other technical college in Wisconsin. To keep tax increases in check, Ihlenfeldt said the college is trying and reduce the burden health care costs bares on them. By outsourcing some of the jobs in the cafeteria and bookstore with employees from a third party which does not offer health insurance, the personnel cost has decreased some. Some teaching positions were eliminated by offering courses online. Employees given health care benefits were asked this year if they would voluntarily pay a part of their premium, despite their contracts saying CVTC pays 100 percent of their health care. (Well, one more lie for Dr. Ihlenfeldt. It seems the cafeteria's services were taken over by Profit Foods and then Chartwells. The first transition occurred sometime about 1990, and the bookstore was outsourced to a nationalwide firm in 2003). Is this a current statement or accumulative, as most of his mistruths are labeled. What next Dr. Ihlenfeldt? Truckdriving? Ihlenfeldt said the college 'operates on a business model' to keep up with the growing population's desire to take classes at CVTC. The model has led to maintaining quality during rapid growth and low unit costs. (This model has also paid Dr. Ihlenfeldt very well for his services, and why would a college President who has bragged for years, he was going to outsource every job he could, would actually do this.) I guess if you earn $25-$35K a year, you are not deserving of the health benefits that the elite are entitled to. Dr. Ihlenfeldt has stipulated this to two of the CVTC unions, and the teachers weren't one of them. "Your wages are not inline with the cost of the benefits you recieve, and I will have to do something about this." Hey, maybe raise the wages for the lowest paid employees, to say $160,000 each, which is what Dr. Ihlenfeldt makes approximately. ) Maybe that would be more in-line. This article and comments supplied by Dipsydoodle.