UNCASG Wins Student Tax Repeal!
Hey everybody! 
Earlier today the North Carolina General Assembly gave preliminary approval to the state budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year — and included among the provisions is a repeal of the 8% student tax that I’ve mentioned in several entries here at law:/dev/null.
With the repeal soon to be final (a 2nd vote happens tomorrow), I wrote up a Facebook note with a chart in it. If you’re on Facebook, feel free to check out the original entry here. You should be able to access it even if we’re not Facebook friends… and if in the process you get the sudden urge to become an FB friend, you’re more than welcome to do so 
The note appears below in its entirety:
[Note: by default I’m tagging the ASG President and senior leadership, the NCSU SBOs, and a few extra people on the side. If you don’t want to be tagged in future editions of T Greg’s Tomes, just shoot me a Facebook message
-TGD]
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Past Editions of T Greg’s Tomes:
- 06/29/10: UNCASG saves students $8.6M+ (a 4,019% return on investment!)
- 04/28/10: DTH Edit Board explains anti-ASG bias, endorses SBP candidate 10 months early
- 03/30/10: Things that surprise no one (Musings re the UNCCH DTH)
- 03/16/10: Crazy, or just lazy? You be the judge (or, “Erroneous trash masquerading as punditryâ€)
- 03/03/10: A Letter to the DTH on Textbooks
- 02/05/10: Tuition Petition campaign update!
- 01/19/10: Yet another open letter to the N.C. State Technician
- 10/14/09: Anatomy of the student fee review process
- 10/06/09: Mainstreaming broad student input on fees
- 09/21/09: Student Governments and the 3 T’s of politics
- 09/04/09: A quantitative and qualitative review of “Enough is enough, ASG” in the UNCCH Daily Tar Heel
- 09/03/09: What’s going on with the Daily Tar Heel?
- 08/07/09: Another Open Letter to the DTH Editorial Board
- 07/20/09: Tell Congress to protect higher education funding!
- 07/08/09: Status update on the initiative formerly known as “Pornstar Healthcare”
- 03/31/09: An open letter to the Daily Tar Heel
- 03/16/09: Giving You Your Dollar Back
- 03/09/09: Pornstar healthcare, coming to a campus near you
- 12/19/08: (Re)Introducing “T Greg’s Tomes”…
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T Greg’s Tomes: UNCASG saves students $8.6M+ (a 4,019% return on investment!)
Folks who regularly read T Greg’s Tomes know I don’t exactly get along with student media, particularly the perpetual (and perpetually sophomoric) foolishness-disguised-as-punditry that emanates from the conservative-leaning Editorial Board at the UNCCH Daily Tar Heel (see Exhibit A and Exhibit B and Exhibit C and Exhibit D and Exhibit E and Exhibit F and Exhibit G).
I’m eagerly awaiting whatever backwards spin will get applied to this story now that UNCASG has saved students millions of dollars for the 2nd year in a row…
Earlier today the NC General Assembly gave preliminary approval to the 2010-11 state budget, which includes a repeal of the 8% student tax that was adopted in August 2009 (see line 32 on page 47 of the budget bill) — a repeal the delegates and officers of UNCASG spent most of our last session successfully getting enacted through in-person lobbying, phone calls, emails, and a Tuition Petition signed by over 22,000+ students.
Now even if we just count in-state undergraduates (since anything more complex wouldn’t fit into the graphic below), our work saved University students over $8,642,722.64. Compared to the $1/student fee that funds UNCASG’s budget, that’s a 4,019% return on students’ investment — meaning UNCASG could do absolutely nothing at all for the next 40Â years, and students would still be better off financially than they would have been without the group’s work.
Or, put another way, the $1 fee could have been implemented on the very day UNCASG was created on September 22, 1972 and students would still be saving money.
I took the liberty of putting together the table below for everyone’s information and usage, compiling the tuition increase rates from the General Assembly, the Board of Governors alternative rates, and the FTE UG resident enrollment at each institution.
UNCASG wins $8.6M+ in savings
And remember the savings are actually more than this, because 100% of the tuition being paid will now go back to the universities where it belongs instead of going to the state’s General Fund.
For folks who question why I’ve dedicated the past 4 years to UNCASG and the NCSU Student Senate, this is why: in just the past 2 years alone — last year we helped repeal a similar student tax slated for 2009-10 — Student Government leaders have saved UNC system students over $25,730,590.64.
Overall, not a bad deal for the $2 apiece we each paid in. Remember that next time someone complains about your student leaders — and seriously think about becoming one of those leaders yourself
And since I’m a big fan of data and tables, I also made another table showing those added-up savings over the past 2 years as a result of UNCASG’s work. Here are the results:
Savings over 2 years: $25.7M+
Now this isn’t a total victory of course. The authorization for an additional $750/student tuition increase I mentioned to y’all was included in the final budget bill, and odds are roughly 100% that every University in the system will jump on the chance to hike tuition under that authorization. So I don’t expect any UNCCH students, for example, to be grateful for paying $950 instead of $990.
But there are precious few total victories in life, and if that $40 (or $259.60 @ ECU) enables someone to stay in school who otherwise might have to drop out, I’ll consider it a success.
Especially when a budget of $215K saved students over $25.7M
Have a great night y’all!
