Hartnell’s $167 million expansion is underway but over budget.

The $167 million expansion of Hartnell College is underway and construction in Salinas and at satellite campuses in Soledad, King City, and Castroville is scheduled for completion by the end of 2021. But the project is already over budget by about 25 percent and at least some of the proposed facilities might not be built, according to college officials.

Hartnell spokesperson Scott Faust says the cost overrun has to do with the increase in the cost of building materials since 2016, when the voters approved Measure T by a margin of 69-31. Measure T authorized funding to improve access to higher education, especially in more remote and underprivileged parts of the Salinas Valley. Forty percent of valley residents over the age of 25 don’t have high school diplomas.

“While it is difficult to pinpoint the cause of those rising costs, in general construction costs track with increases in the cost of gasoline, concrete and steel,” Faust writes in an email.

At least one reason for the higher cost of materials is no mystery.

As Hartnell’s construction director, Joseph Reyes, recently pointed out, the Trump administration is placing tariffs on Chinese goods and enacting trade policies that make items like imported steel more expensive. Reyes’ impression is born out by industry data, including a recent study by the National Association of Home Builders, which found that 400 goods commonly used in construction are affected by Trump’s tariffs.

Reyes was speaking at the Oct. 23 meeting of the Measure T Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee, a volunteer body tasked with ensuring that Hartnell complies with the will of voters. Committee member Kimbley Craig, who is a business consultant and former Salinas City Council member, says whatever the reason for the overruns, she’d like the college to be more transparent and forthcoming. “We need to be having these uncomfortable conversations now,” she says. “It’s important for the taxpayer to know.”

Another potential cause for discomfort is Hartnell’s use of bond funds to pay the salaries of two college employees, Reyes and Measure T program coordinator Dawn Henry. The ballot language for Measure T included a prohibition on the funding of administrator salaries. Hartnell says it’s permissible to pay the salaries of the two employees because they are managing construction, citing a 2004 opinion from the Attorney General’s office. “What is prohibited is the use of bond funding to pay for instructional employees or operating costs,” Faust says.

Craig, however, says it shouldn’t take a legal opinion from the AG to justify bond spending. “It doesn’t look transparent,” she says. “It feels like a loophole.”