NEBRASKA /A.P. NEWS
PROGRESS SEEN IN COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISPUTE
By John Axtell and Associated Press
Mar 1, 2010 - 7:51:04 AM

    State Senator Greg Adams of York says progress is being made to resolve the funding dispute that's led to a lawsuit among Nebraska's 6community colleges district.

     A weekend summit that wrapped up yesterday brought together Adams and representatives from all 6 colleges and the Nebraska Community College Association.

     No details of the discussions were released, but Adams feels good progress was made in the 13 hours of talks over 2 days. He says while there's still work to be done, he is confident there will be a legislative solution in the future.
  
     The dispute centers on a revamped distribution formula passed by the legislature that gives a larger share of state money to the community college districts with lower property tax bases.

    Omaha's Metro Community College...which pushed for the change...began claiming once the new formula began that the system was unfair because Metro was getting less state money per student and forced it to increase property taxes.

     The higher rate was still lower than that of several of the other schools...including Western Nebraska Community College.

     The Metro board complained that the Community College Association was favoring the other 5 schools over it in lobbying the legislature, and refused to pay the full annual association dues...which led the other members to expel Metro.

     Metro later revised the figures it submitted to the state for the funding formula, shifting accountants to qualify for more money. The other schools cried foul, then followed Metro's example and made the same changes to the figures they submitted to the state.

     Metro, in turn, accused them knowingly sending false numbers to the state and sued the 5 other colleges...saying they were trying to cheat Metro out of its rightful share of state funding.

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