Good news! The Dallas Morning News reported recently that Collin County Community College District has the lowest tax growth rate of any educational entity in the county, referring to data from the Central Appraisal District of Collin County. Between 1993 and 2003, CCCCD tax rates actually declined by 6.72 percent. The tax rate for CCCCD stands at 9.1932 cents per $100 valuation of property.

Meanwhile, the college has grown to nearly 40,000 students and has received several national awards. How did the college manage to decrease the tax rate at the same time that state funding was shrinking and the economy slumped? It is a combination of cost cutting, increased property values, conservative budgets and shared services.

Several years ago, trustees and administrators began long-range strategic planning. They identified creative ways to improve programs for students while cutting costs. The economy was booming at the time, so no one knew how valuable that aggressive planning would be just a few years later.

For example, the college is now saving approximately $150,000 a year on the production of its schedule of classes. By using an interactive “e-schedule” system online instead of mailing a copy to each household in the area, the college greatly reduced an expense that grew daily with the area’s population. The e-schedule system also won the “Best of the Web” award from the Center for Digital Government and Converge magazine.

In addition, college administrators looked at ways to share services with other public entities. In fall, the college and Collin County officials organized a deal to share a portion of the college’s fiber optic Wide Area Network (WAN) infrastructure. The agreement will give significant savings to taxpayers. It will give county employees access to an existing fiber optic WAN at a savings of $1.5 million.

More savings came recently when construction bids for the expansion of the Preston Ridge Campus in Frisco came in $750,000 less than original projections.

As colleges and universities throughout the nation work to extend higher education to meet an ever-increasing demand, Collin County Community College District will be guided by strategic planning, collaboration and creativity to keep quality education affordable and accessible.