Michigan community colleges, including Southwestern Michigan College, will receive a state-funding raise of at least 3 percent in the next academic year.

David Mathews, president of SMC, said the raise comes as good news for the college, but it’s not as good as hoped. SMC is slated to receive the lowest percentage raise in the state at 3.1 percent. The highest funding raise will be given to Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor at 4.6 percent.

The concept stemmed from a committee conference that agreed to pay $8.5 million more to the state’s community colleges for a total of $294 million. Michigan Gov. Richard Snyder recommended the raise in state funding providing the colleges meet certain “best practice” requirements.

“That was a misstatement,” Mathews said. “The governor thought one way to distribute the raises was to have it based on certificates or awards a school received; the Senate wanted to use a certain formula. They eventually just decided on 3 percent across the board and judged the exact percentage on that.”