There’s an impasse in Alamance County that finds the community college caught in the middle between the community's need for expansion in order to grow more jobs there, and the political nonstarter of raising taxes in order to do so.
During last week's panel discussion at The Business Journal’s State of Alamance event, Alamance Community College President Martin Nadelman told the audience there that because of rising enrollment and demand for training in various trades, he needed $15 million dollars. The money would be used to build and equip a facility that could accommodate more than 100 new students — students who likely would have jobs waiting at the end of their training.
On the side of expansion are Burlington Mayor Ronnie Wall, who sited the need for more capacity at ACC in order to remain competitive with surrounding areas, and ACC President Martin Nadelman who has seen several hundred ACC students annually with training in automotive repair, welding and high-tech machining trades get hired quickly at decent wages.
The forces against expansion, at least in the near term, are daunting. County Manager Craig Honeycutt says that while he and the board understand the school's lack of space, he calls the $15 million dollar price tag a “fairly large number”. Describing the county as fiscally conservative and maxed out on its ability to take on debt without raising taxes, Honeycutt says taxpayers there, many of whom are wrestling with debt of their own, are in no mood to give away any more of their earnings to federal, state or local governments. Longtime Alamance commissioner Tim Sutton says he will not support putting the request to a vote until a general election in a presidential election year — or November 2012. Why? Because he believes that anyone who wants a referendum during a primary or off-presidential year is looking for a shortcut to winning during low-turnout elections. He's also concerned that because 30.2 percent of the community college’s 5,400 traditional students live outside Alamance County, he doesn’t believe local tax dollars should support the educational aspirations of those students hailing from Guilford and Orange counties, from where most non-Alamance students are traveling. Sutton also says he opposes any tax increase for any reason.
On the bright side for Nadleman and ACC expansion hopes, Sutton adds that he won’t oppose putting the ($15 million) request on the ballot in November 2012, and he will not campaign against the community college. If history is any guide, Nadelman has more reason for hope. There have been three multimillion-dollar bond referendums in Alamance for public schools and the community college since 2000. Each one passed by a wide margin.
