By Kathryn Reed

Lake Tahoe Community College is taking measures to ensure it can pay its bills even if Sacramento doesn’t.

The board agreed Tuesday to borrow about $1.7 million from El Dorado County Office of Education – just in case.

Sue Niehoff

Sue Niehoff, vice president of Business Services, told the board at Tuesday’s meeting that if the state does not have a budget adopted by Oct. 1, the college would be in trouble. With it being an election year, there are rumblings from Sacramento that a budget may not be passed by then.

A midyear TRAN (tax revenue anticipation note) might need to be issued as another stopgap measure. A TRAN is a short-term resolution and comes with strings.

By going through the county and not issuing a TRAN now, the college is saving between $70,000 and $90,000.

The 2010-11 budget will be discussed June 22 at 6pm, with adoption expected at the special June 29 6pm meeting. The College Council is reviewing the budget today.