LOCH SHELDRAKE — A few days before students walked down the aisle for the 55th commencement ceremony at the Paul Gerry Fieldhouse, the SUNY Sullivan Board of Trustees voted on the 2019-20 budget and tuition and fee schedule on May 16.

The board passed an $18.3 million budget for the 2019-2020 academic year —a 2.6 percent decrease from last year.

The college expects $18.3 million in revenue coming in for the new year but also plans to spend $18.3 million.

The highest expense for the college once again will be the current and past employee benefits at $4.9 million.

This is a 6.9 percent decrease from last year and comes after the college found common ground with retirees on health insurance.

As previously reported in the Democrat, the college wanted to make changes to retiree's health insurance in an effort to save money for the college.

After hearing many of the retirees fears they had on changing insurance plans — some feared they would lose the level of service if they switched plans — the college worked with the unions and retirees in finding a better solution.

“We now have 33 retirees enrolled in Aetna,” said SUNY Sullivan President Jay Quaintance who also said the college would see a savings of close to $150,000 because of the change.

“It shows that working together we can change the mindset that [New York State Health Insurance Program] NYSHIP is not the only game in town. There are no changes at this time for the active employees,” said Quaintance.

Furthermore, the budget shows the instructional cost to the college will see a 15.69 percent decrease from last year. This year's instructional cost will be $4.01 million.

On the revenue side, the college will increase tuition for in-state and out-of-state students.

The college wants to collect $5.08 million in tuition, which is a 2.61 percent increase over last year.

For out-of-state students, the college has budgeted $247,993. Last year the out-of-state tuition budget was $66,820.

For a full-time student last year the cost to attend SUNY Sullivan was $4,814 a semester. This year they will pay $5,016.

State aid will also increase next semester, and the college will receive $3.4 million or a 6.66 percent increase.

New for this year will be the Parking and Transportation Fee. According to Vice President for Administration Chief Operating Officer Darrin Raynor, students in the past only paid the fee if they had a car parked at the school.

“The college looked at what other colleges were doing to help repair the parking from wear and tear,” said Raynor.

For the new semester, all students will be a charged a $15 fee to help cover the cost to maintain and fix the parking lot and walkways.

The college budgeted next semester for Buildings and Grounds maintenance at $1.3 million.