Larger problems at work behind rate hike

August 24, 2007 —

It's gone up again. Every fall, students can look forward to some bad news in the form of a tuition hike. Yet, this year's rate increase is a bit different from previous hikes in that it was predicated partly on the fact that the state legislature can't seem to cooperate, at all. As you have doubtlessly read in the papers and seen on the television, the state is in the midst of a very unusual budget crisis.

And yet, as much as the crisis has been reported, there is still some confusion as to exactly why the legislature can't cooperate - are our elected representatives simply behaving like middle school children, unable to resolve grudges earned during recess?

That is certainly possible. But the likelihood is that there is more to it. The budget crisis exists because there exists a fundamental philosophical divide between Democrats and Republicans in the legislature; it's a divide caused by beliefs rooted so deep inside a politician's worldview that they might as well be religious.

The beliefs in question? Simply, the legislature's Republicans and Democrats can't agree as to how to govern a society. And since they can't agree as to how to best do that, they certainly can't agree as to how to pay for it.

The budget crisis has revealed deep-seated attitudes held by our elected representatives and by our governor. In a period of relative prosperity, these attitudes wouldn't be playing the role they are.

So what, exactly, are these attitudes?

At the risk of oversimplifying, it's actually quite simple. Republicans favor limited government, philosophically. It's a cherished evergreen that the GOP has touted since the Reagan years. In Michigan, this translated into spending cuts and eliminating waste, which Michigan Republicans insist is rampant.

Democrats favor...something. The Dems haven't had a coherent party line in years, other than simply opposing Republicans. So in Michigan, this translates into "responsible" cuts, which in turn translates into opposing Republican spending cuts and counterproposing the aforementioned responsible cuts. But fairly recently, the Dems have woke a sleeping beast that scares the GOP to death: a tax hike.

Some of Michigan's Democrats actually favor raising specific taxes to help alleviate the current budget crisis. Jennifer Granholm has swayed back and forth on the matter, but seems to favor a tax increase more often than not.

With that, we're back to the tuition hike. Now, this college is one of a number of public institutions, receiving state funding at the taxpayer's expense to support its programs. Tuition was raised partly because SVSU - and any other public university, for that matter - can't be sure how much support it's receiving from the state, partly because of a historical trend of dwindling state support over the years, partly because of the state's enduring economic hardships, and partly because of a dysfunctional, philosophically antithetical legislature.

College students are Michigan's economic future. They will work in the high-tech, high-paying jobs that today's politicians hope to attract. But they can't afford to stick around, have kids and set up shop if they're paying off loans 30 years after graduation because a legislature has totally failed to govern.