COLUMN: Raise taxes for tuition, then lobby the Legislature
Taxation is a four-letter word in Utah – especially if you’re in the Republican camp.
From the flag-waving economic conservative, who loathes taxes as they impinge on his liberty, to the “family values” social conservative, who views them as the Devil’s instrument, most Utah Republicans would cry bloody murder at the mere mention of higher taxes.
It’s a top-down thing, in line with Bush administration rhetoric designed to pander to the populist cause du jour.
“Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes,” the president assured Californians two years ago in a speech filled with election-year excess.
Governor-elect Jon Huntsman Jr. also is toeing the line.
“I would not raise taxes,” Huntsman told The Salt Lake Tribune in June. “Based upon a lot of data I have seen, there would be no excuse for us to have to raise taxes beyond where they are today.”
Ah, but there is an excuse! Albeit, a much-neglected one. It’s called higher education. And it’s suffering.
Consider this: Of what use is an annual tax refund when exorbitant tuition increases virtually nullify any tangible benefits derived from those few extra dollars? Couldn’t the money be put to better use in the state’s higher education system where it can guarantee access and quality to thousands of eager young minds? Why should taxation be taboo when the greater good is clearly at stake?
Some, like former commissioner of higher education for Utah, Cecelia Foxley, say it’s a question of tipping the scales.
“We’ve reached a point where we have to look carefully at the balance between the students and state taxpayers,” Foxley told the Deseret News in 2002, when the State Board of Regents approved a 3.5 percent across-the-board tuition increase.
And yet, Utah’s tax policy is anything but balanced. In fact, as News Washington correspondent Lee Davidson put it, “It’s sort of like Robin Hood in reverse.”
Referencing a study released last year by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a private think tank, Davidson reported that “the richest 1 percent of Utah taxpayers – with average incomes of $826,000 – pay about 5.5 percent of their income for state and local taxes (counting savings on federal taxes for the local taxes that they paid).
“Meanwhile … the middle fifth of taxpayers in Utah – those earning between $27,000 and $43,000 a year – pay 10.7 percent (including savings on federal taxes for the local taxes they paid). And the poorest fifth of Utah families – earning less than$16,000 – pay 11.5 percent of their income for state and local taxes.”
That’s more than double the rate the richest Utahns pay.
Herein lies a solution to the tuition quandary: Perhaps taxes can be raised differentially, with big businesses and corporate fat cats paying a larger share. So, while we’ll all see a tax increase, hard-working middle-class Utahns wouldn’t have to break bank. This way, we’re all doing our bit to alleviate a crisis – while truly leveling the scales.
Waxing prolific about petitioning the Legislature to increase the state’s higher education appropriation is meaningless without first acknowledging the inequalities in the tax system that deprive legitimate interests of funding.
This is where we ought to focus the debate. After all, the state’s non-participation in higher education runs contrary to the very purpose of land-grant universities, so eloquently articulated by Justin Smith Morrill in 1862.
“These colleges,” Morrill wrote, “were founded on the idea that a higher and broader education should be placed in every state within the reach of those who may choose industrial vocations where the wealth of nations is produced.”
The theme here is accessibility – something tuition increases diminish considerably.
It’s time concerned Utahns talked the tough talk and pushed for tax relief for higher education.
Yes, it’s an aggressive approach. Perhaps even a bit drastic. But in the end, slaughtering sacred cows isn’t always such a bad thing. As Mark Twain once pointed out, they do make the best hamburgers.
Leon D’Souza is a senior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to leon@cc.usu.edu.