Joliet Junior College adopts $318 million budget, a $10M hike over last year

The Joliet Junior College Board of Trustees approved a $318 million budget for the current fiscal year, with one trustee abstaining and another voting against it out of financial concerns.

The spending plan for a college that serves seven counties in northern Illinois was approved in a 6-1 vote on June 25, about a week before Fiscal 2025 was set to end.

Trustee Maureen Broderick was the lone vote against the budget. Trustee Michelle Lee abstained.

The $318 million budget for fiscal 2026 is about a $10 million increase over the previous fiscal year.

The budget figure includes “all expenses related to instruction, operations, capital projects and all other ancillary operations at JJC,” according to the college’s budget book.

The total budget includes a $122 million operating budget, which comprises funding for education, operations and maintenance at the college.

The operating budget increased by about $5.4 million more than last year’s operating budget.

The budget for Fiscal 2026 is a “balanced operational budget” that includes no student tuition increase, modest enrollment growth, reallocation of existing resources to fund new requests, and “realistic projections in state and property tax revenues,” according to the budget book.

The Fiscal 2026 budget is the largest for the college since at least Fiscal 2015, according to budget documents posted on JJC’s website.

Between Fiscal 2015 and Fiscal 2022, the college had its highest budget in Fiscal 2016 at about $294 million and its lowest at $230 million in Fiscal 2019.

At the June 25 board meeting, Broderick requested postponing the vote on the budget for another month, but the majority of trustees did not support her request.

Broderick said she wanted to postpone the vote because she had just received answers to more than 45 questions from herself and Trustee Elaine Bottomley about the budget.

Broderick also said she was concerned about the college’s budget increasing from $249.2 million in 2023 to what she estimated at the time was a $322.2 million budget for Fiscal 2026.

“Which is a $73 million increase in the last three years. That’s why I’d like to sit and study and have us work as a team to have a full assessment of what’s going on with the budget,” Broderick said.

In response, Karen Kissel, the college’s vice president of finance and administrative services, said the college starts developing requests for its budget in December. She said college officials work with the board in January to “develop assumptions as we look at the budget going forward.”

“We talk to you about the enrollment that we see, we talk to you about increasing costs that we see, we talk to you about union contracts that have already been board-approved,” Kissel said.

Kissel said the board gives the college staff direction to begin development of a draft budget plan, and they speak with department staff about their budget needs.

“We cull through all the requests for new positions, we talk about reallocations of existing funds to better support departments in need of our students, we look at opportunities for expenditure cuts, for contract renegotiations,” Kissel said.

The board is presented with a draft budget for discussion in May, Kissel said.

JJC attorney Bryan Kopman said state law allows the college to amend its budget “from time to time” at a regular meeting, as long as notice is provided under the Open Meetings Act.

“So, if you do have a problem with the budget, you pass it today, [and] you can come back and amend it at the very next regular meeting,” Kopman said.

Bottomley, a newcomer who was elected in April, said she wasn’t “thrilled” about the timeline or process for the budget.

She said she felt the process is flawed, and she would like to “fix it and address it for next year.”

“Do I wish that I had more time to review the answers to all my questions? To review all the answers to Trustee Broderick’s questions and relook at this budget with that context in mind? Yes. I also recognize our fiscal year is ending. If I can go back and do things a little bit differently, I would. That’s not an option,” Bottomley said.

Trustee Diane Harris said the board has an “obligation to move forward with the budget.”

“We have a balanced budget, we’re not raising our tuition. Those are the goals and the values we have been focusing on,” Harris said.

Broderick said she believed JJC needs to exercise fiscal conservatism and responsibility.

“Besides assessing and hiring a president, our main thing is to do the budget, which I got censured on, and I do say I do pay attention to the budget,” Broderick said as Harris interjected with “point of order.”

Trustee Alicia Morales said the college is not increasing taxes or raising tuition.

“Inflation has caused the cost of everything to go up, and so that’s why it looks like it’s inflated,” Morales said.

She said college officials talk about the budget in January, and the board reviews a draft budget in May.

“For us to come at the 11th hour and ask to postpone it is nuts. We should be prepared and ask our questions in advance,” Morales said.

Bottomley said 69 new positions had been requested for the new budget. She said through the “leadership of staff,” it was narrowed down to 17 new positions to “strategically help enhance operations” at the college.

“Taking a look and cutting that down to ensure that we’re doing the best that we can – that’s critical. It’s hard and it’s impressive, so thank you,” Bottomley said.