Lt. Governor Walter Dalton visited Johnston Community College in Smithfield Wednesday.

"The community colleges are absolutely critical to get through this tough economic time," he told a crowd at the Black Business and Health Expo at JCC.

Dalton praised the college for training workers for growing industries including healthcare.

"Nobody from China is going to come in here and treat you when you are sick. Nobody from India is going to come in here and treat you when you are sick," he said.

JCC officials are hoping for more state funding as they face record enrollment.

The college enrolled nearly 300 more students this semester, bringing the student body up to 3,167. That's a 9 percent increase.

"We need to make everything as efficient as possible," Dalton said. "But we need to make sure that we keep viable those programs that are going to help drive that future economy, train our workers, to retrain for jobs that do exist."

Della McMillian, who works for the college, nodded in agreement during Dalton's speech.

"He mentioned us working together. That's what it's going to take in these tough economic times," she said.