College Expects to End Year in Black Thanks to Lottery

Santa Monica College expects to end the current fiscal year with a $475,435 surplus instead of a $1.4-million deficit, thanks to reduced expenditures and increased revenues including $800,000 from the state lottery.

According to Tom Donner, assistant superintendent for business, the college had anticipated $250,000 in lottery revenues this year, but already has received about $800,000 and may end up with close to $1 million by the end of the fiscal year June 30.

Fred Piegonski, spokesman for West Los Angeles College, said that the Los Angeles Community College District also received more lottery funds than had been expected, and as a result was able to rescind a one-week unpaid furlough that was to have been imposed on classified and administrative employees as a budget-tightening measure last month.

The nine-college district expects to receive about $4.9 million from the lottery this year, and funds will be distributed districtwide to offset operating expenses, Piegonski said. Next year, allocations may be assigned to the colleges individually, he said. West Los Angeles College’s operating budget is $11.2 million, he said.

Santa Monica College had expected a $1.4-million deficit in its $32.6-million budget, Donner said last week in a financial report to the college’s Board of Trustees.

But the school expects to end up with a surplus, he said, mainly because of the greater-than-expected lottery revenues, and because of additional federal grants for vocational training. Also, Donner said, Santa Monica College’s expenditures were lower than expected because of the school’s cutbacks in use of support faculty on hourly pay.

In his report Donner also previewed the budget for next year. He presented to the board a preliminary budget of $33,963,902 for 1986-87. The board will review the proposal and adopt a tentative budget in June. A final budget will be adopted in September, officials said.

The budget reflects a payment of $660,000 to the Los Angeles Community College District for some of the Los Angeles residents enrolled at Santa Monica College, officials said.

Santa Monica College has agreed to admit the first 5,000 Los Angeles residents without penalty, but under a contract that goes into effect July 1, Santa Monica has agreed to pay Los Angeles for any additional Los Angeles residents. The payment will be determined by a formula using average daily attendance figures. Under the formula, two half-time students would equal one full-time student in counting Los Angeles attendance over 5,000.