Following a lengthy discussion about increasing employee salaries and parking fees, the Austin Community College board of trustees approved its 2013–14 budget July 1.

The board discussed adding an amendment to the 2013–14 budget that would increase parking fees for students and staff by $10, but the amendment failed. Trustee John-Michael Cortez said the revenue from increasing parking fees could pay for parking maintenance, but some other trustees felt the increase would be too much of a financial burden to students.

The trustees also discussed adding an amendment to the 2013–14 budget to increase employee salaries by 3 percent, but the motion failed. The 2013–14 budget does, however, include a 2 percent raise for employees. To increase pay by 3 percent, additional funding would have been needed, said Neil Vickers, vice president of finance and budget at ACC.

The board approved a balanced budget of about $278 million for the 2013–14 school year, a 2.2 percent increase from the 2012–13 budget, Vickers said. The majority of the increase is because of an expected increase in property tax revenue, he said. Vickers said the only other changes from the 2012–13 budget to 2013–14 budget is funds for the operations needed for the Elgin and Hays campuses. No property tax increase is expected for 2013–14, and the tax rate is expected to remain at 0.0951 per $100 valuation, Vickers said. The property tax rate will be adopted in September.

"It's a pretty unexciting budget year," Vickers said.

To learn more details about ACC's 2013–14 budget, view it here.