Our tuition continues to dramatically outpace inflation, rising 5.8% this year, and 48% over the last six. So much strain has been placed on the students that the Board of Trustees voted to cap tuition increases at 6%, so as to not strain USM students any more than they already are. Yet still, with all this empirical evidence, some USM students are not clear on how TABOR II, Question Four on the Nov. 3rd?ballot, could prove to be devastating for Maine’s higher educational systems.
For those of you who may not know, TABOR II is a “tax relief” bill designed to cap government spending and “relieve the tax burden” to stimulate investment. Far from a relief to tax payers, TABOR II has several major flaws.?
While a small tax break sounds appealing, each of these flaws would mean deep cuts in Maine’s public services, from local teachers and schools to state supported beds in nursing homes.?
For us at USM, it will mean even deeper cuts – more lost staff, faculty, and the closing of whole programs and majors, and perhaps a move by the Trustees to revoke their promise to limit tuition increases.? Why?
First, TABOR II seeks to control government spending by limiting budget growth based on a rigid economic formula of population growth plus inflation. Alarmingly, the inflation portion of the formula is based on the consumer price index, which has nothing to do with government spending. Consumer price index reflects inflation of?consumer?goods, such as milk, eggs, etc. The government, on the other hand, doesn’t purchase consumer goods they purchase public goods like, education and health care, which have and will continue to rise at a much faster inflation rate.
Second, passing a tax cap during a recession year – the worst recession in 70 years – means we are locked in at an artificially low level of taxes and government spending.? Cuts in state appropriations at USM and layoffs of teachers around the state are what happens in a recession, and we have already have had plenty.?
Why would we want to do this to ourselves? Further, TABOR II, as we have learned from the one state that has passed a TABOR law, Colorado, will continue to impose a “ratcheting down effect” on our already too low level of state services.
Third, Maine is a bad state to have a tax cap, because TABOR II does not take into account Maine’s aging population. As Maine’s population ages (which is disproportionately comprised of the massive baby boomer population), more elderly will be claiming entitlements like Medicare and Social Security, which are not taxed – thus, further driving down state revenues.
While the state will continue to face tough choices as we find ways to meet these challenges, the worst thing to do would be to limit the flexibility of our elected legislators in balancing the need for tax equity and relief on the one hand, and vital public services like higher education on the other.
Twenty years ago, the state of Maine funded?two-thirds?of the state university system’s costs, and our tuition was far lower.? Maine now funds only about?a third?of the university system’s costs.? This is a major reason for the large tuition increases that have now made going to USM far more expensive to the student.??
If TABOR II passes, much of the remaining cost of higher education will have to be foisted upon us as students.? USM will have to, in effect, become a much more expensive, and private, university.? Many of us who come here now out of price or choice will be forced to leave with little alternative, or be required to take out even more debt.? A shot at the American dream will evaporate for many of us.
When a community decides not to invest in education it’s the same as choosing not to invest in its future. Vote no on TABOR II. As individuals and as a community, USM’s students and Maine cannot prosper without a healthy public university system, and affordable access to it.?
Please vote No on Question Four.? Be sure you are registered to vote, and take a few minutes to get to the polls.? Maine’s educational future is riding on it.??