If Ballot Measure 28 fails, student tuition will increase, and Oregon’s economic recovery will be more difficult, University President Dave Frohnmayer said Friday at a Salem press conference.
Frohnmayer, who as a state official is not allowed to take political positions during work hours, took time off Friday to travel to the state capital and urge Oregonians to vote in favor of the measure.
Measure 28 is a three-year, $724-millon tax
increase the Oregon Legislature referred to voters after failing to balance the state’s budget after five special sessions. If it passes, the average Oregonian will pay an additional $114 in taxes per year. If it fails, many state services would be slashed and tuition at Oregon University System schools would increase for the current winter term as well as spring term.
“We’re at a time when decisions we make today will quite literally affect lives for decades to come,” Frohnmayer said.
The speech was scheduled to coincide with similar events in Medford, Corvallis and Portland by student body and university presidents.
If the measure fails, University students will pay a $10 surcharge for every credit taken during winter and spring terms, which will slap most students with about a $300 additional charge and will raise roughly $4.1 million. The University will absorb up to $2.4 million to make up the $6.5 million shortfall the measure’s failure would cause. Frohnmayer said students shouldn’t plan to
be refunded for the potential tuition surcharge even if the state’s budget improves.
“Frankly, we can’t budget on that,” he said. “The decisions that we’re making here are decisions that will last us through June and through the school year.
Republican state Rep. Pat Farr also spoke Friday, joining Frohnmayer in support of the measure. Farr, a former Eugene city councilor, said voters shouldn’t turn down the initiative just because the issue was originally the Legislature’s responsibility.
“One of the biggest criticisms of Measure 28 that I hear is it lets the Legislature off the hook,” he said. “Well that’s patently not the case. The Legislature is not off the hook; this just gives us a little bit of extra time, a little bit of breathing room, to move the economy forward on a broad front.”
Phil Donovan, a Yes on 28 campaign manager, said students should heed Frohnmayer’s message and turn out to vote Tuesday.
“They’re all university concerns, and students have something at stake,” Donovan said. “Students have got to vote, and we hope they’ll realize they have a tuition increase at stake.”