Erie County legislators voted 8-3 to approve SUNY Erie Community College’s $88 million budget plan for 2023-24 Thursday.
The proposed budget ECC’s board of trustees adopted Thursday demonstrates that former president David Balkin succeeded in “right-sizing” the college despite serving only 10 months in the job, trustees said.
Three Republican legislators voted no because the budget increases ECC’s student registration fee by $25 per semester. But most agreed that ECC made significant strides in “tightening its belt” over the past year, as legislator Chris Green, R-Clarence, put it.
The budget is $10 million lower than the previous year’s, includes no tuition hike and forecasts a $21.5 million fund balance achieved largely by early retirements and staff cuts ECC pursued last year under its former president, David Balkin.
Gilmour said ECC’s acting president, Adiam Tsegai, and her team “have done a wonderful job” in continuing the work Balkin started.
“They really did right the ship,” he said.
Republican legislators John Mills of Orchard Park, James Malczewski of Elma and Frank Todaro of Lancaster said they could not vote to raise ECC’s registration fee from $30 a semester to $55 a semester – an 83%…
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