By Hope Sandusky/editor-in-chief

Students will see an increase in tuition starting in spring 2016 after TCC’s board of trustees approved the new operating budget in a 6-1 vote Aug. 24.

The budget includes an increase in tuition by $4 per hour for in-district students. Those who are out of district will see an increase of $20, and out-of-state and non-residents will see a tuition increase of $50.

“The increase in the tuition rate is due in large to the overall decrease in tuition this year,” Chancellor Erma Johnson Hadley said during the Aug. 3 board meeting. “The decrease is not due to a lack in enrollment but rather a decrease in the number of hours students are enrolling in.”

The budget decreased about $31 million from the previous year, mostly because of the completion of the new early college high school buildings and the new South Campus technology building, administration vice chancellor Angela Robinson said.

Faculty and staff will also see a 3 percent salary increase, from last year, Robinson said.

“With benefits, we’re looking at about a $6.2 million increase,” she said.

Trustee secretary O.K. Carter opposed the budget, particularly the salary increase, saying it would do more harm than good.

“I am quite alarmed by this budget,” he said. “It has an extravagant increase in new expenses. I’d be OK with the salary increase if we weren’t hiring more people. I just don’t see how we can do this.”

The board unanimously approved no change in the current property tax rate for Tarrant County homeowners.