Kaskaskia College held two public hearings prior to the regular Board meeting last night and gave the public a chance to comment or ask questions about the 2015 Tax Levy for which taxes will be collected in 2016.  During the Bond Issue Hearing, it was explained that Kaskaskia College plans to issue $3.2 million in Working Cash General Obligation Bonds with the process taking place during the period of November 2015 to February 2016.  This bond issue will have no impact on KC’s 2015 Tax Levy.  The bond issue is necessary because KC has received no funding during the current fiscal year which began July 1, 2015.  At the beginning of the Tax Levy Hearing, Nancy Kinsey, Vice President of Administrative Services, provided some clarification in regard to the advertisement in the Saturday Centralia Sentinel newspaper.  She said that there is only one tax levy – tax increase for Kaskaskia College for 2015 taxes, which is to be collected in 2016, which is KC’s Fiscal Year 2017.  She also said the bonds have zero impact on the tax levy for 2015, which again is to be collected in 2016, KC’s FY 2017.  Kinsey added that the overall single tax levy for Kaskaskia College represents a 9.93 percent increase or 6.85 cents per $100 assessed valuation.  Mike Monaghan, Executive Director of the Illinois Community College Trustees Association attended the meeting and spoke of the current financial status of the state and the impasse of the state budget.  He stated that the universities and community colleges have not received a state payment since June of 2015 and if a budget is passed in March, it looks like a payment would not be received by the community colleges until September or October of 2016 which would be a 14 to 15 month period where no state monies would be received.  Monaghan also stated that 135,000 Illinois college students are not receiving financial aid in the form of MAP Grants due to the budget impasse and there is a real concern that enrollments will also decline as a result of this decreased financial aid.  This enrollment decline will also be a loss of tuition revenue for community colleges.  Kaskaskia College receives one-third of its yearly budget from the State and with the current budget impasse, the State is currently behind $4.3 million to Kaskaskia College.  Monaghan added that institutions, including Kaskaskia College, have to find a way to live without one-third of their budget to make ends meet with the current budget impasse.