The continuation of out-district tuition payments to community colleges in other counties places an unfair tax burden on local taxpayers.

One of the attractive aspects of the legislation that united state universities, community colleges and vocational-technical schools under the supervision of the Kansas Board of Regents was the provision that would drop the fees counties pay to subsidize community colleges in other cities.

Those “out-district” tuition payments were created as a way to help support community colleges that were largely funded by local property tax levies. Other counties were required to pay a set fee for each of their residents that attended a community college in another county. It was a way to keep local property tax levies from soaring too high in communities that were home to community colleges.

As part of the Higher Education Coordination Act of 1998, however, community colleges received significant state support that was intended to allow them to reduce their dependence on local property taxes. To be fair, the legislation also called for out-district tuition payments to be discontinued.

Unfortunately, that pledge along with other commitments made in the higher education act have fallen victim to difficult financial times. Not only will state universities not receive money that was promised in the legislation to raise faculty salaries next year, but out-district tuition payments will not be dropped. On Monday, Douglas County commissioners were told that the county expects to pay about $120,000 during the rest of this year and another $240,000 next year in out-district tuition payments to community colleges and Washburn University.

This is a double-whammy to local taxpayers. Although Kansas University employees have been told there will be no salary increases next year, all of those employees who live in Douglas County will be paying local taxes that will go to support community colleges in other cities. While Douglas County residents are suffering from cutbacks at KU, their local tax dollars will be going to help lower the property taxes in counties that support community colleges.

The unfairness of the situation is obvious, and it is a stark reminder that multi-year promises made by the Kansas Legislature often are hard to keep and shouldn’t be the basis for any hard financial planning. Although the Higher Education Coordination Act clearly stated that KU and other state universities would receive additional funding for several years to help boost faculty salaries and that out-district tuition payments would be phased out, current financial realities now make that impossible.

The continuation of the out-district payments also raises the question of whether state budget cutbacks are weighing as heavily on community colleges as they are on state universities. The state is facing a difficult budget dilemma, but fair is fair. Forcing counties that are facing budget crises of their own to continue paying out-district payments that were scheduled to be dropped just doesn’t seem fair.