April 08, 2009 12:42 AM UTC

Students To GOP: Thanks For Nothing!

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’ve been following for several days the reaction to major cuts to higher education funding proposed by the Joint Budget Committee. As most of you know, the proposed cuts have shaken the higher education community pretty hard, and yesterday student government organizations from around the state protested at the Capitol against them. The JBC points to a companion proposal to raid the “superfluous” reserves of a state-mandated insurance fund in order to “backfill” these cuts, which the fund’s managers vigorously oppose.

It’s a tough situation for all concerned, and solutions-oriented legislators are working hard on getting all the pieces into place to make this very complicated plan work. Nobody, not even the most hardnosed JBC number-cruncher, wants to hike tuition 30% or more next year.

The only thing you could have predicted beyond the inevitable controversy and hard choices: unhelpful, opportunist Republicans. Exhibit A, the Senate Minority Office’s press release on the budget a little while ago:

The Senate’s top Republicans today heatedly rejected some $423 million in cuts to higher ed under the pending 2009-10 budget, saying the proposal would shutter up to nine of the state’s key community colleges and devastate post-secondary education across Colorado.

The GOP senators called on their colleagues to conduct a sweeping re-examination of the entire budget–with a renewed focus on reining in growth and pay of the state’s bureaucracy–and they chided legislative budget writers for trying to make colleges and universities bear all of the burden of budget cuts. The Republicans said if they do not succeed in pushing for a far-reaching rewrite when the full Senate takes up the budget debate Wednesday, they’ll demand it be sent back to the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee.

“In no uncertain terms, this budget is completely unacceptable,” said Senate GOP chief Josh Penry, of Grand Junction. “Rather than spreading the pain across the state’s bureaucracy, the budget committee took a meat clever to Colorado’s colleges.”

We’re not sure where to begin pointing out the absurdities–for starters, where is the alternative plan beyond the words “far-reaching rewrite?” Because we read the whole thing and never saw anything besides “how dare Governor Ritter keep hiring ‘essential’ state employees.” Did we hire $423 million worth of employees last year?

And not a single word about the proposed transfer of Pinnacol reserves to cover the difference–were they sleeping during that half of the presentation?

A couple weeks ago, national Republicans were pilloried for their “budget without numbers” non-alternative to Obama’s budget–a classic example of what Democrats call the “Party of No.” In Colorado, Republicans not only have no alternatives, they just ignore the stuff they don’t have easy answers for! How can they possibly expect to be taken seriously?

The simple fact is that TABOR and other spending mandates in the state constitution leave legislators very few places they are allowed to make cuts, one of the biggest reasons higher education is always on the verge of getting axed when times get tough. Senate Republicans know all of this, but acknowledging that would immediately undermine their positions on a whole bunch of other fiscal fights (see: Arveschoug-Bird).

Bottom line? There’s not an ounce of good faith to be had here, just another place Republicans thought they could twist the proverbial knife without the responsibility of having to solve the problem. But these poor kids, out there protesting drastic cuts to their most important connection with state government? Which has been grossly underfunded for decades?

They’re not stupid either.