University President Dave Frohnmayer and Student Senate President Sarah Hamilton spoke out Monday, at a news conference, against two ballot measures they said could lead to drastic cuts in funding for higher education.
The conference, which centered on how Measures 41 and 48 would affect higher education, was sponsored by Defend Oregon, a Portland-based political action committee encompassing 100 organizations opposed to the measures. Frohnmayer and Hamilton said the measures could lead to higher
tuition, cuts in opportunity grants and greater student debt.
Measure 41 would reduce the amount of money in the state’s general fund by allowing taxpayers to choose between taking either the state exemption credit or a deduction equal to the amount deducted on federal taxes, according to the explanatory statement found on the Oregon Secretary of State’s Web site.
The general fund is used to pay for state services such as education, health care and public safety. If the measure passes, nearly $800 million will be cut from these services in the 2007-09 budget, Defend Oregon representative Morgan Allen said. $77 million of that money will be cut from the higher education budget (including
community colleges) – nearly 10 percent of the current budget.
Measure 48 is a constitutional amendment based on a law passed in Colorado several years ago. The law reduces the state budget by limiting spending increases to the percentage increase in state population plus inflation from one biennium to the next. That would mean that if the state population increases by 10 percent during a two-year cycle and there is no inflation, state spending can not increase by more than 10 percent during the following two-year cycle. It would affect not just the general fund, but the entire state budget.
If Measure 48 were hypothetically applied to the current state budget, $2.5 billion would have to be cut from state services in the next seven months (the new two-year cycle begins in July 2007), according to documents from the office of the Secretary of State. Frohnmayer, who said he was speaking at the conference in a personal capacity, expressed concern that the reduction in funding will affect the ability of Oregonians to acquire quality education.
“If ballot measures 41 and 48 are passed, opportunities for students for the future will be lost and the future of our state will be in jeopardy,” he said.
Both measures are sponsored by wealthy out-of-state backers, something Frohnmayer spoke against.
“I’m an Oregon citizen and an Oregon voter and I deeply resent that outside people, especially those with great wealth from outside the state, are trying to use Oregon’s initiative process for their personal political playground,” he said.
Hamilton, who is in her senior year at the University, said that despite working 70 hours per week during the summer and two part-time jobs during the school year, her student loan debt became a five digit number two years ago. She said the financial impact of measures 41 and 48 will only force students deeper into debt.
“This (the $77 million cut expected if Measure 41 passes) would mean tuition would increase dramatically, and it’s hard enough as it is for students to afford to pay for school,” she said. “If Measure 41 and 48 pass, students will have even more debt, or they won’t be able to access a higher education at all because it would just be too expensive.”
Nicholas Malone, a graduate student at the University, said the ballot measures are intended to reduce services, not save taxpayers’ money, and will have debilitating effects on education.
“It makes higher education more exclusive and less accessible for the working class through increases in tuition and fees, cripples the ability of the university system to obtain quality educators as other states offer salaries and benefits with which we cannot compete,” he said.
Frohnmayer spoke of the “devastating” effects that the Colorado law, which Measure 48 is based upon, has had on higher education in that state. After 13 years under the law, drastic cuts in funding and increases in tuition caused the state to fall to 48th in the nation for higher education funding.
He said that, speaking as a former
attorney general, he would urge voters to carefully consider the measures and vote
against them.
“(The measures) are something we can not deal with in a constructive way in Oregon,”
he said.
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