OUR VIEW: Lobbying more like pointless bribing
Too often college students are accused of not thinking something through before doing it. As hard as we may try to shake this belief, there are those that come along and mess everything up.
The culprit this time? ASUSU lobbyists.
These lobbyists fill an important role in the university by working with the state legislature to get legislation passed that is favorable to USU students. Usually their efforts are worth the time and effort. Even if nothing gets passed, at least the needs and wants of USU students are heard by those who have the money and the power to give assistance.
But their latest attempts at lobbying smack of bribery in passing a bill that is being pushed without being completely thought out.
House Bill 196 has gained the support of student lobbyists across the state, and if passed, this bill would eliminate sales tax on student textbooks. These students hail this bill as a brilliant idea that will save students money that they can use in bettering the economy.
Right.
Even if sales tax were at 10 percent, and it’s not, and if most students spend in the vicinity of around $400 on textbooks, we’re really not saving all that much. We’ll shave off a whopping $40 bucks – at most. Sure, all that money saved could be used for rent or tuition, but let’s be honest, if students had an extra $40 sitting around, they’d more likely than not spend it on pizza or a trip to the movie theater. Isn’t it amazing how we can complain about the high price of textbooks, but we find it easy to cough up the money to go out to eat?
Don’t get us wrong, we’re all about saving money, but if we’re going to cut costs, let’s go after something more substantial.
Our student lobbyists recently traveled to Salt Lake to continue their lobbying efforts, and this time they brought along a nice little gift/bribe/desperate pleading for help – Aggie Ice Cream. It’s not a bad idea either since this bill isn’t overly popular among state representatives and similar bills were shot down in 2000 and 2006. Getting this bill passed will require substantial effort. But, is what appears to be a form of bribery the best way to go about doing this? We’re pretty sure that wasn’t their intent – seriously, Aggie Ice Cream is good, but probably not good enough to change a state legislator’s stance on the bill – but even on the national level, lobbyists should be careful with their interactions with legislators. Student lobbyists should likewise be careful.
But the question still remains: Is this effort really worthwhile? At the same time our lobbyists were demanding an elimination of textbook sales tax, they were also throwing support behind Senate Bill 180, which would give money to incoming freshmen. Doesn’t it seem contradictory to demand the elimination of money that would go toward the funding of Senate Bill 180? Utah is funded by taxes, and USU is funded, at least in part, by money from the state. We find it pretty hypocritical to demand more money from the state and at the same time get upset about having to pay the taxes necessary to get the additional funding.
We appreciate the efforts of both lobbyists and legislators, but we urge our lobbyists to think things through more thoroughly before demanding something of the legislature.
Oh, and we hope the ice cream was good too.