[Vision2020] faculty staff payraises at UI

[Joan Opyr]

Saundra writes:

>If you ask me, the picture is grimmer than grim.  This comes from
>yesterday's Daily News:

>"UI provost Brian Pitcher greeted approximately 100 hopeful faces with a
>solemn message.
>
>"I think this meeting is a very good thing. It's good to see the level of
>faculty discussion that has gone into this proposal. There is still a 
>budget
>gap," Pitcher said. "We believe we will be looking at vertical (program)
>cuts. State funding is going away. Although it is not explicit, that seems
>to be the trend in Idaho. The vision is fewer programs that are adequately
>funded - We are inadequately funded in almost every program."
>
>Pitcher said the university's multiyear budget gap of more than $30 million
>is bad enough. An expected state funding holdback in 2005 strips away any
>flexibility within the budget.
>
>"We believe the economic forecast is too rosy," he said. "Remember, this is
>an election year. It is very common after elections for the Legislature to
>find a gap in the budget and impose a holdback. We anticipate that will
>happen."


This is a trend that we (the voters) have the power to stop.  State funding 
of public education should not be "going away."  Gone are the days when you 
finished your degree or trained for a profession, and you did that one thing 
for the rest of your life.  We're looking now at lifelong education and 
several job changes over the course of our working lives, and that means we 
need ready, affordable, state-supported education.  We need it now more than 
we needed it post-WW II.  We cannot have a vibrant economy and a flexible 
workforce without adequately-funded colleges and universities.

I am sick unto death of South Idaho Republicans (and, I'm sorry to say, some 
Democrats) touting corporate and income tax cuts as the high road to 
financial solvency.  It isn't.  It's penny-wise and pound-foolish.  Cutting 
marginal (or, rather, marginalized) programs at the U of I will not be 
enough to fill the budget gap the state has created.  Rumor has it that the 
University is considering unpaid furloughs in the coming fiscal year for 
those employees it doesn't have to lay off or fire outright.  Now, what is 
an unpaid furlough but a targeted, regressive tax?  A tax paid only by 
people who work at the University of Idaho?  Is this the sort of 
irresponsible state government that we want?

For that matter, is this the sort of tax-cutting, deficit-spending, 
budget-busting federal government that we want?  I don't like April 15th any 
better than the rest of you, but I like the idea of inadequate schooling for 
my kids even less.  It cannot be the case that we're going to spend another 
$70 billion next year putting out the fire in Iraq while we let our own kids 
go to hell in a handbasket.  Schools, universal health care, and democracy 
-- that's what we've promised the Iraqis, and that's great.  Everyone should 
have those things.  But what are we promising here?  Deficits as far as the 
eye can see and radical cuts in Social Security, Medicare, financial aid for 
college, infrastructure, veteran's benefits, you name it.  The cobbler's 
children have no shoes.

Gee, can you tell that I'm angry?  Well, as my grandfather used to say, 
better pissed off than pissed on.  I just signed up on John Zogby's web-site 
to be a participant in his political polls, and I recommend that anyone else 
who's interested in airing his or her opinions do the same.  Go to 
www.zogby.com and fill out the online questionaire.  I don't know who the 
devil CNN/Gallup is talking to, but it's no one I've ever met.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment

PS: This day and every day between now and the election, I'll be going 
steady with five men: George Bush, Dirk Kempthorne, Butch Otter, Larry 
Craig, and Mike Crapo.  I'll be sending them emails, faxes, and long, 
pointed letters, asking for a little more representative in my 
representative government.  If nothing else, at least it'll mean that a few 
secretaries and administrative assistants have secure employment.

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