Madison citizens may be seeing increased taxes if they approve a future referendum for a project to expand facilities and programs at the Madison Area Technical College.

MATC got approval for their facility’s master plan last April. Roger Price, vice president of infrastructure at MATC, said they still need a lot of time and effort to fully implement the plan. There is no set date or amount of tax increase for the referendum.

Despite MATC having a downtown campus, the Truax Campus on Madison’s north side, a campus located on South Park Street, a center for adult learning on Commercial Avenue and a possible new addition to Madison’s west side on South Gammon Road, Price still said overcrowding is an issue.

“Demand for students is growing significantly and over this past year, we’ve experienced a growth of 12 to 13 percent,” Price said.

Every time a school wishes to borrow more than $1.5 million, a referendum is required. The 10 to 15 year master plan is estimated at $350 million, but Price said the number will end up being less than that.

Passing a referendum may not be easy while the country is still fighting an economic downturn, and if a referendum passes, it will mark an increase in Madison’s property taxes.

Additionally, MATC’s Part-Time Teachers Union will be speaking out against the referendum because they believe that expansion is not needed.

“We hope to be educating the community on what MATC is really about,” said Bob Curry, vice president of the Part-Time Teachers Union.

Curry said the increase in students is in part due to the distressed economy, as people are going back to school to get more job training and look for other job alternatives.

“The building’s a little worn, yes, and there sometimes is a shortage of classrooms, but we don’t know if the new building plan is a necessity. Also, there [are] more serious issues to be looked at,” Curry said.

One of these more serious issues, Curry said, is MATC’s low graduation rate of roughly 40 percent.

Another issue is that part time teachers make a fifth as much money as the full-time teachers on a class-by-class basis, Curry said. Most of the part-time teachers can’t support themselves on their salaries at MATC and often have to find separate jobs or spend a lot of time traveling around the county to different teaching jobs; these burdens make it hard to really get involved with students.

“It’s just not conducive to good education. MATC has a clientele that need a lot of support, and most part-time teachers — who take up 50 percent of the total class load — can’t afford to give that support.” Curry said.

The details of the referendum are still going through planning; the when, what and how much will take some time to come.

Curry added the Part-Time Teachers Union will be fighting many of its provisions, especially regarding the spike in property taxes, a fair portion of which currently already go to the MATC campuses.

“You can’t build a palace on a rotting foundation,” Curry said.