Politically, at least.
I was mildly chastised by a colleague at a meeting the other day for being too down on things. A quite new tenure-track colleague had asked how worried s/he should be, and I said that given the situation of the proposed budget cut, the tuition freeze, and previous tax cut which brought us to the current massive deficit, and the requirement that the state budget be balanced, the only ways things can really change are:
1. Reduce the proposed budget cut to the university, and instead cut other social or health services even more than they're already proposing to cut them.
2. Raise taxes.
And since I don't see the republican majorities in our legislature deciding to raise taxes, I think we're going to experience very bad cuts. Various legislators have publicly said that they value the university system and don't want to cut it as much as is proposed, but unless they collectively decide to raise taxes, there's no way out of the cuts that I can see. (They ARE proposing to raise fees for camping and such, which is regressive, rather than raising income taxes in a progressive way. So I'll pay more to go camping, and rich folks won't pay more to go to their vacation homes.)
On the other hand, it's feeling very much like spring here, and that helps in so many ways. I've had this weird desire to go camping. If it's a bit warm, I may put up my tent next week during break, in my back yard, and sleep out there just to do it.
It is hard to stay optimistic but I guess what else to do? Well, move, maybe. As I noted earlier, I think collecting garbage off the side of the road is highly satisfying! Does it pay well? I doubt it, but maybe as much as we'll get paid after these cuts (failure on my part to stay optimistic).
ReplyDeleteAs I expected, the Legislature is moving toward the worst possible decision: Maintain all the cuts to education, keep the tuition freeze, and nuts to any autonomy. So my recommendation is go camping and come back in, oh, ten years' time.
ReplyDeleteI don't see how logically reasoning out the consequences of deep cuts and the legislature's refusal to raise taxes is anything but realistic.
ReplyDeleteGo camping!