(a) Wyoming Statute 21-18-205 created a statewide community college system operations funding mechanism based upon a statewide community college system strategic planning process attaching funding to state interests. - (i) The basis for fiscal-year 2019 and fiscal-year 2020 funding shall be the sum of:
- (A) The 2017-2018 biennial budget appropriation for state aid to community colleges, adjusted by:
- (I) Subtraction of the portion of the budget appropriation restricted to reimbursement of community college increased retirement contributions (unless appropriated separately by the legislature); and
- (II) Recapture and redistribution of state aid as calculated in July 2015.
- (B) Proportional allocation of the 2017-2018 biennial budget appropriation for enrollment growth funding using Chapter 5, Section 3(a)(i)(A) as the basis.
- (C) Any adjustments to base made by the Budget Division of the Department of Administration and Information.
- (D) Community college district revenue, which is defined to include:
- (I) Actual 4-mill revenue for fiscal-year 2017, and 99 percent of 4-mill revenue calculated against the 2017 certified assessment;
- (II) Two times the amount of actual motor vehicle registration revenue for fiscal-year 2017; and
- (III) Two times the amount of actual other revenue for fiscal-year 2017.
- (ii) For each community college, the sum of the adjusted 2017-2018 biennial budget appropriation for state aid, the proportionally allocated 2017-2018 biennial budget appropriation for enrollment growth funding, net Budget Division adjustments to base, and the community college district revenue shall be divided by two to establish annual college-specific base funding amounts.
- (iii) The annual college-specific base funding amounts shall be separated into fixed cost and variable cost portions that must be recalculated at least once every four years, based upon the following definitions of these costs, and the following procedures for determining the college-specific costs:
- (A) Definitions of fixed and variable costs:
- (I) Fixed costs include mandatory transfers and those operating costs that do not vary with enrollment. Such costs include the majority of administrative costs as well as operating costs related to facilities (e.g., utilities, maintenance and small repairs). Fixed costs include all or a substantial portion of costs classified as plant operation and maintenance, institutional support, academic support and student services. Also included in fixed costs is a relatively smaller portion of instructional costs representing costs for academic administrators, faculty (i.e., those with tenure or on continuing contracts) and related operating costs.
- (II) Variable costs are those operating costs that vary proportionally with enrollment or represent step-variable costs. Step-variable costs increase or decrease based on enrollment fluctuation but not necessarily proportionally. Instead, step-variable costs remain static for a range of enrollments and increase once the range is exceeded (or decrease when enrollment drops below the range). The step-variable costs remain static above the range until the next level of enrollment is reached (or vice versa in the case of enrollment declines). Variable costs include all or a substantial portion of operating costs classified as instruction, service and student financial aid. Additionally, variable costs include all operating costs for extension (remote) operations that lack permanent full-time administrative staff.
- (B) Procedures for determining college-specific fixed and variable costs:
- (I) The relevant costs for the calculation of college-specific fixed and variable costs are the Fund 10 costs, after excluding capital costs and non-mandatory transfers. The first step is to sort these costs, by location, into standard functional categories as follows: instruction; service; academic support; student services; institutional support; plant operations and maintenance; student financial aid; mandatory transfers; and extension operations. The definitions for these standard functional categories are provided in section 604.26 of the Financial Accounting and Reporting Manual for Higher Education published by the NACUBO, and they are the same definitions relied on by the U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics for use in the IPEDS.
- (II) Once the costs are sorted by location, it is necessary to determine which locations will be treated as campus locations and which will be treated as extension (remote) locations. A campus location is one that incurs the full range of operating costs for academic and related purposes. An extension location is one that utilizes a more streamlined operation consisting almost exclusively of classroom instruction. The distinguishing characteristic of extension locations is the absence of permanent full-time administrative staff. The operating costs for extension locations are deemed to be fully variable while the operating costs for campuses vary by functional category.
- (III) Campus location costs are sorted by function and summed to generate a total, by function, of each community college's campuses. The following standard percentages are applied to the functional cost category totals to determine the portion of each function that is fixed or variable:
Instruction - 35 percent fixed and 65 percent variable;
Service - 0 percent fixed and 100 percent variable;
Academic support - 80 percent fixed and 20 percent variable;
Student services - 70 percent fixed and 30 percent variable;
Institutional support - 90 percent fixed and 10 percent variable;
Plant operations and maintenance - 95 percent fixed and 5 percent variable;
Student financial aid - 0 percent fixed and 100 percent variable;
Mandatory transfers - 100 percent fixed and 0 percent variable; and
Extension operations - 0 percent fixed and 100 percent variable.
- (IV) The fixed amounts for each functional cost category are summed, producing the total fixed costs for the community college. The variable amounts for each functional cost category are summed and added to the total costs for all extension locations. This results in two totals - one for fixed costs and one for variable costs. These costs are summed to produce the total relevant costs for the community college.
- (V) The final step is the calculation of the fixed and variable cost percentages. The total for the fixed costs is divided by the total costs for the community college to produce the fixed cost percentage. The total for the variable costs is divided by the total costs for the community college to produce the variable cost percentage.
- (iv) For each community college, the current biennial weighted credit hours shall be the sum of the following:
- (A) Academic years 2016 and 2017 Level One credit hours multiplied by a factor of 1.0;
- (B) Academic years 2016 and 2017 Level Two credit hours multiplied by a factor of 1.25;
- (C) Academic years 2016 and 2017 Level Three credit hours multiplied by a factor of 1.5; and
- (D) Academic years 2016 and 2017 Level Four credit hours multiplied by a factor of 0.8.
- (v) For each community college, the current biennial weighted credit hours shall be divided by two to establish the current annual weighted credit hours.
- (vi) The variable costs portion of the system-wide annual base funding amount shall be divided by the current annual system-wide weighted credit hours to establish the current period system-wide credit-hour revenue.
- (vii) For each community college, a successfully completed, weighted credit hour volume shall be calculated for each academic-year, beginning with academic-year 2015.
- (A) Each year upon verification of the most recent successfully completed, weighted credit hour volumes, the college-specific percentages of the system-wide successfully completed, weighted credit hour volume shall be calculated.
- (viii) For each community college, a program completion volume shall be calculated for each academic-year, beginning with academic-year 2016.
- (A) Each year upon verification of the most recent program completion volumes, the college-specific percentages of the system-wide program completion volume shall be calculated.
- (ix) College-specific variable cost state funding shall be calculated as the sum of the following calculations:
- (A) Multiplying the current annual, college-specific weighted credit hours by the current period system-wide credit-hour revenue, and then multiplying this product by the percentage of the community college's adjusted 2017-2018 biennial budget appropriation for state aid to the sum of this adjusted appropriation for state aid and its community college district revenue (to be distributed four times per year).
- (I) For fiscal-year 2019, 40 percent of this variable cost state funding shall not be subject to recapture/redistribution, and each community college's allocation of this 40 percent, divided equally into two parts of 20 percent each, shall be calculated as follows:
- (1.) Multiplying the community college's proportionate share of system-wide successfully completed, weighted credit hours for academic-year 2017 by the variable cost portion of system-wide annual base funding, then multiplying this product by the percentage of the community college's adjusted 2017-2018 biennial budget appropriation for state aid to the sum of this adjusted appropriation for state aid and its community college district revenue, and then multiplying this product by 20 percent.
- (2.) Multiplying the community college's proportionate share of system-wide program completions for academic-year 2017 by the variable cost portion of system-wide annual base funding, then multiplying this product by the percentage of the community college's adjusted 2017-2018 biennial budget appropriation for state aid to the sum of this adjusted appropriation for state aid and its community college district revenue, and then multiplying this product by 20 percent.
- (x) For both fiscal-year 2019 and fiscal-year 2020, college-specific fixed cost state funding shall be calculated by multiplying the fixed cost portion of the college-specific annual base funding by the percentage of the community college's adjusted 2017-2018 biennial budget appropriation for state aid to the sum of this adjusted appropriation for state aid and its community college district revenue.
- (xi) Amounts calculated under the funding allocation model which are greater than or less than the system-wide adjusted 2019-2020 biennial budget appropriation shall be distributed proportionately based on variable cost state funding for current annual weighted credit hours.
- (xii) For any given fiscal-year, external cost adjustments can be applied to variable cost state funding and/or fixed cost state funding. The external cost adjustment for variable cost state funding shall be based upon the most recent Employment Cost Index for post-secondary institutions available at the time of biennial and/or supplemental budget submission, published by the US Department of Labor - Bureau of Labor Statistics. The external cost adjustment for fixed cost state funding shall be based upon the most recent Consumer Price Index available at the time of biennial and/or supplemental budget submission, also published by the US Department of Labor - Bureau of Labor Statistics. The application of any external cost adjustment will necessarily increase the demand for state funding, and accordingly, any such increase can only be funded by means of an approved exception budget request.
- (A) External cost adjustments can also be applied to state funding of Wyoming Public Television. However, given that enrollment is not a factor in Wyoming Public Television's operations, the external cost adjustment shall be based solely upon the most recent Consumer Price Index available at the time of biennial and/or supplemental budget submission.
- (xiii) For fiscal-year 2019 and fiscal-year 2020, annual recapture and redistribution of state aid due to changes in local 4-mill revenue resulting from changes in assessed valuation identified in July or August of each year shall be distributed to the community colleges based on their proportionate share of the sum of the adjusted 2017-2018 biennial budget appropriation for state aid and the community college district revenue, as calculated in support of the 2019-2020 biennial budget request.
- (xiv) A spreadsheet depicting the operation of the funding allocation model for 2019-2020 shall be included in the Fiscal Handbook.
(b) If it is determined that the funding allocation model established by rule and in accordance with W.S. 21-18-205 is no longer the appropriate method for determining the funding request for the community colleges, and no other funding allocation model has been developed, funding requests for specifically identified needs may be submitted in the biennial budget request until a new funding allocation model has been approved and rules have been promulgated. - (i) Annual recapture and redistribution of state aid due to changes in local 4-mill revenue resulting from changes in assessed valuation identified in July or August of each year shall be distributed to the community colleges based on their proportionate share of credit full-time-equivalent (Credit FTE) enrollment as reported in Table 5 of the Wyoming Community College System Annual Enrollment Report for the two most current years available. This process shall be followed until an approved funding allocation model is in place.
(c) Adjuncts to the funding allocation model include the following: - (i) Revenues received by the Commission's contingency reserve account, to be used only for facility emergency repairs and/or preventive maintenance, shall be distributed to the community colleges as follows:
- (A) Each community college's share of the distribution shall be based on its proportionate share of actual gross square footage as outlined by the computation and dates prescribed in Section 10 of this chapter.
- (I) Subsequent changes in eligible gross square footage by any community college shall not alter the respective distribution percentages until such changes are recognized through a Commission-initiated calculation of system-wide gross square footage.
- (B) Actual distribution of revenue from the contingency reserve account to the community colleges shall be made as the Commission determines, and shall be dependent on receipt of coal lease bonus funds by the Commission.
- (ii) The appropriation for health insurance premium benefits, to be used for reimbursement of community college employee premiums, shall be calculated and distributed as follows:
- (A) For the 2007-2008 biennium and beyond, the health insurance premium benefit pool shall be based on plan enrollment numbers as of the month of April in odd-numbered years, as well as the projected premium rates for the month of December in the same odd-numbered years.
- (B) Distribution of funds to the community colleges shall be for reimbursement of actual expenses incurred. Each community college shall submit a quarterly reimbursement request on an approved Commission form.
- (C) The Commission shall evaluate the sufficiency of funding in the health insurance premium benefit pool on a quarterly basis. If funding is projected to be insufficient, the Commission shall work with the Budget Division of the Department of Administration and Information to identify other possible funding options, and if other options are not available, and if supplemental budget requests can still be submitted, the Commission shall consider such a request.
- (I) If funding in the health insurance premium benefit pool is insufficient and other funding options, including supplemental budget requests, are not available, each of the community college's reimbursement shall be reduced in an amount proportionate to its share of system-wide eligible employees as of the month of April in odd-numbered years.
- (II) If funding in the health insurance premium benefit pool exceeds reimbursement of actual expenses incurred, the unspent balance shall revert to the general fund at the end of the biennium.
- (iii) The appropriation for the retirees' health insurance pool, to be used to cover the community colleges' share of pool funding, shall be calculated and distributed as follows:
- (A) Based on payroll data provided by the community colleges, the Budget Division of the Department of Administration and Information shall calculate the system-wide biennial appropriations for the retirees' health insurance assessment.
- (B) Distribution of the appropriations by the Commission to the community colleges shall occur at the same time and in the same relative proportions as state aid distributions.
- (C) On a monthly basis, each community college shall calculate the amount of the appropriation used for the preceding month, and submit payment of this amount to the State Auditor's Office.
- (iv) Appropriations for increased retirement contribution benefits, to be used for reimbursement of the community colleges' share of increased contributions, beginning September 1, 2010, shall be calculated and distributed as follows:
- (A) For the 2013-2014 biennium and beyond, the retirement contribution benefit pool shall be based on the cumulative payroll of pension-eligible community college employees as of the month of April in odd-numbered years, adjusted to recognize local funding.
- (B) Distribution of funds to the community colleges shall be for reimbursement of actual expenses incurred, adjusted to recognize local funding. Each community college shall submit a quarterly reimbursement request on an approved Commission form.
- (C) The Commission shall evaluate the sufficiency of funding in the retirement contribution benefit pool on a quarterly basis. If funding is projected to be insufficient, the Commission shall work with the Budget Division of the Department of Administration and Information to identify other possible funding options, and if other options are not available, and if supplemental budget requests can still be submitted, the Commission shall consider such a request.
- (I) If funding in the retirement contribution benefit pool is insufficient and other funding options, including supplemental budget requests, are not available, each of the community college's reimbursement shall be reduced in an amount proportionate to its share of the cumulative payroll of pension-eligible college employees as of the month of April in odd-numbered years.
- (v) The funding allocation model and/or its adjuncts may be reviewed by the Commission as necessary, and proposed revisions may be recommended for rules, in accordance with applicable statutes.
Amended, Eff. 11/19/2018.