This is the third and final installment of a three-part series on Question 1.
- Part One — Question 1: Tax break or big mistake?
- Part Two — What will happen statewide?
The changes the university facesOne major aesthetic eyesore stands out at UMass Amherst — lots of ongoing construction for the “New Dirt” initiative. And the Amherst 250 Plan strives to balance and build faculty and invest in key programs to enhance the university. Many of these measures have been taken to enrich the experience of students enrolled at UMass. These efforts could soon be diminished.
About 30 state universities, colleges, and community colleges exist in the Commonwealth, all of which would be affected by a repeal of the state income tax. State funded higher education grants lower income families’ access to college, but this could change.
Gov. Deval Patrick has already announced a mid-year budget cut of about five percent in response to the international financial crisis. According to a mass e-mail sent by Chancellor Robert C. Holub, UMass Amherst’s campus alone will lose $12 million. Holub says cuts will begin immediately and will affect next year’s fiscal budget. If the Question 1 initiative passes, those cuts would be added on top of these.
“To recover from [losing] that amount of money would include very substantial increases, probably a double in fees,” said Ed Blaguszewski, Director of News and Information for UMass Amherst.
Everything, including university programs, faculty, staff, services, scholarships, would be up for review. Fees for out of state students already exceed in-state fees by $3,000, this would increase much higher as well. Scholarships could be restricted and UMass’ praised financial aid office could have their hands tied in terms of giving students the packages they need. Although the university wants to be sensitive to fee increases a certain level of quality needs to be obtained in services and programs. A university cannot increase prices and also cut back on programs. This asks students to pay more for less.
“We don’t know what path the legislators will take,” said Blaguszewski, “So we’ve worked out a couple of sample scenarios if the proposition passes.”
This fiscal year, UMass received $227 million in state funding. A 50 percent cut means UMass would lose $113 million. Scenario two implements a 65 percent cut, that figures out to $149 million in cuts. But additional costs would result from fringe benefits. Currently faculty and staff are on the state payroll; this would change. The university would have to take on these fringe benefit costs, roughly $26 million in scenario one and $34 million for scenario two, on top of slashes in state funding.
“The state budget has doubled in the past 15 years; taxpayers shouldn’t have to account for the state’s reckless spending,” said Aucoin, a member of Committee for Small Government.
The State Board of Higher Education controls tuition for UMass and all of it goes back to the State Treasurer. Since state would need to find alternative funding because of the tax cut, it is likely tuition will be increased in order to sustain the weight of the lifted income tax.
Such changes in turn would shift costs of higher education from the state to the students and families, far outweighing the savings of the income tax cut.
“There would be a change in landscape for higher education in Massachusetts,” said Blaguszewski.