Stealing Spotlights

SEPTA and its union are are choosing the wrong time to brush bumpers.

Gov. Ed Rendell created a pact between SEPTA’s leadership and its largest union not to strike hours before a second deadline was to expire Saturday, Oct. 31. Rendell’s pact was simple and effective. If either party did not stay at the negotiating table and allowed a strike to occur, Rendell would withhold state funds to the groups in the future. Rendell’s efforts to avoid a strike during the World Series, both as a former Philadelphia mayor and as a Pennsylvanian, should be commended.

The fact that SEPTA and its union, which represents about 5,000 employees, have not settled on a contract after seven months is troubling enough. But that they would use the World Series as a weapon in their disagreements is inexcusable.

Philadelphia doesn’t often get a chance to bask in the national spotlight, and the World Series is one such opportunity. Instead of pulling together to showcase Philadelphia to the country, the union and SEPTA are choosing to bicker and threaten.

The use of the World Series as a ploy to grab headlines in the contract negotiations displays a troubling lack of concern for Philadelphians and their needs. Less than 10,000 fans are expected to use the system for transportation to the World Series, but 800,000 Philadelphians use the system regularly.

The union is failing its obligations to transit users by neglecting the needs of the vast majority of riders for the chance to pressure SEPTA officials with embarrassment during the Series.

SEPTA officials, on the other hand, are failing their duties to transit users by waiting to really take negotiations seriously until a major threat looms. Why does it take the threat of a strike for negotiators to work into the early hours of the morning to settle a contract?

To be fair, there are substantial differences between the union and SEPTA. The union is asking for an 18 percent raise over the next five years, while SEPTA wants to give a 9 percent raise, with no increase the first year.

If increased wages are so important to union members and keeping costs low is so important to SEPTA, then SEPTA and its union should understand the potential damage they do to Philadelphians and the city when they threaten to affect its livelihood so callously.

Cash Campaign

Students are finally taking budget concerns into their own hands.

Throughout this academic year, they have stood by and watched Temple’s dollars decrease and cutbacks commence. The freeze on hiring and out-of-state travel may have registered on some students’ minds, but Gov. Ed Rendell has brought the issue to the forefront.

In his proposed Pennsylvania Tuition Relief Act, Rendell is planning to bring needed tuition assistance to some Pennsylvania students. Rendell is excluding schools that are state-related, which includes Temple, Penn State University, the University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University.

Temple Student Government President Nadine Mompremier is valiantly rallying her fellow Owls to speak out against the overlook. Temple students are in no better financial situations than their state-system peers.

President Ann Weaver Hart and the administration can only do so much to plead students’ cases, so it is up to the student body itself to call for assistance.

Appropriations from the state have been dwindling over the past few years, and Temple has had to rely more on tuition revenues.

Rendell’s cold shoulder brought Penn State students into Philadelphia in an attempt to get their university into the legislation. The State College-based school has thousands of students across the state who would like – and need – the tuition assistance as much as Temple students.

TSG is driving home the fact that under the act, students and their families would only pay what they can afford if the family’s combined salary is less than $100,000.

Many Temple students struggle to pay their tuitions and would greatly benefit from reduced costs to their educations. The benefits would be seen immediately, the burden of how students would pay their bills to Temple would be lightened, and students wouldn’t be buried under as much debt after they graduate, as they struggle to get that first job and pay back loans.

The struggle to get Temple included in the act isn’t ending with the rally – it is just the beginning. Mompremier is planning a letter-writing campaign and an e-mailing campaign to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in hope of swaying opinion before the act goes to a vote.

If the situation does not improve, Mompremier plans to protest in Harrisburg, but she cannot do it by herself.

Student support needs to remain strong if we really want to see results. Fair-weather activists never get much done. Stick with the cause until the desired outcome is reached.

Pa. budget cuts force Temple to scale down

This year’s holiday shopping season might be contingent upon how many more budget cuts Temple will see this upcoming year.

So far, Temple has set aside $11.4 million to give back to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania after Gov. Ed Rendell made numerous budget cuts. Temple initially set aside $7.5 million, but has recently set aside an additional $3.9 million.

The three largest sources of revenue for the state are the personal income tax, corporate income tax and sales tax.

While the economy is in a recession, Temple’s Chief Financial Officer Anthony Wagner said more cuts are coming.

“I don’t think it would be prudent for us to think that these are the end of the cuts,” he said.

Because of this, Temple has set aside more than what was asked by the state, but Wagner said the university has little “wiggle room” if more money is requested to be returned.

“The way we’re trying to cobble it together, we thought it would be best to overshoot the amount,” he said.

In a press release from Oct. 30, Rendell announced he and his staff identified $350 million in cuts that would preserve the state’s budget.

“The revenue situation may get worse before it gets better,” he said. “We will continue to monitor these volatile economic conditions in order to maintain the Commonwealth’s balanced budget.”

The economy’s recent downward spiral forced Rendell to report an additional $128 million in cuts last week.

“Everything is on the table for consideration and review. We have to balance our budgetary restraint measures with our obligation to provide quality public services to the citizens of the Commonwealth,” Rendell said.

Wagner said these steps are an effort to balance the budget, but he said it isn’t the end.

“My concern is that there are going to be more cuts,” he said. “The state currently has reserved a total of $478 million. Some of that $478 million they’ve reserved, the governor doesn’t have the unilateral right to reserve.”

Wagner said there are other members of state government who need to voluntarily comply with the cut. He also added the state government’s shortfall was more than $600 million, an amount the state hasn’t fully reserved for.

The state has a rainy day fund of about $750 million, but Wagner said not to expect the state to be using it to dig itself out of the deficit.

“Every year when the state has a surplus, which it has had the past few years, a certain amount is transferred into that fund for times like this,” Wagner said.

When the first cut was made, Temple restricted out-of-state travel and hiring practices. The restrictions were instituted not just because of the budget cuts but to restrict people from hiring at their own will, Wagner said.

With the two largest revenue collections — March and April —months away, Wagner said it will be late in the fiscal year before Rendell has a sound footing on how the budget will end up.

LeAnne Matlach can be reached at leannematlach@temple.edu.

A loss of state funding leads to hiring freeze on campus

The university’s hiring freeze will not affect student jobs, and tuition is not expected to be raised for the spring semester, despite increased budgetary pressure from the state that has prompted the university to make across-the-board cuts, Temple financial officials said.

The university recently announced a sharp decline in state appropriations funding due to a historic state revenue shortfall that has forced it to increase its budget reserve to $11.63 million, or about 1.5 percent of its $775 million annual budget.

A budget reduction plan was originally drafted two weeks ago after the state notified Temple that 4.25 percent of its state appropriation would be put on reserve. Since then, the state’s revenue shortfall has increased from $200 million to $300 million, forcing Temple to prepare for a larger cut.

Anthony Wagner, Temple’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, announced the immediate hiring freeze and the freeze on all out-of-state travel in a brief address to a solemn group at Feinstein Lounge at last Wednesday’s Board of Trustees meeting in Sullivan Hall.

Other measures in the original plan remain. The university will annul the 2 percent inflationary supplement of $1.6 million that was given to all schools and colleges for non-compensation costs, like office supplies and books. In addition, university officers will be given target amounts to reduce their budgets.

Student jobs went untouched because, unlike salary and benefits costs, they are “not a real significant part of the compensation budget,” said Ken Kaiser, Temple associate vice president and chief financial officer.

“We recognize that these jobs are important for students to earn some extra money while at the same time helping the university,” Kaiser said. “In some areas, the student workers are really critical, like in recreational services.”

Though Kaiser said “anything’s possible,” he also said he doubts spring semester tuition rates would be tweaked in order to raise revenue for the university.

“That’s not been talked about or considered,” Kaiser said, adding that in his years as a Temple student and employee dating back to 1985, he cannot remember a mid-academic year tuition raise.
With the uncertain economic climate, more cuts could be on the horizon for Temple, based on how the state’s economy performs leading up to Gov. Ed Rendell’s preliminary 2009-2010 budget draft in February.

At the board meeting, Wagner said the fallout from the financial crisis and the looming recession “could result in a loss of $1 billion” for the state.

For now, the university is still receiving regularly-scheduled payments from the state. But state department heads are placing money on reserve in case there is a budget deficit in five months.

By then, the university should definitively know how much of the state appropriation is cut.

Barring a dramatic economic turnaround, the hiring freeze and other measures are expected to last the rest of the academic year, Kaiser said. Other state-related universities, including Penn State, Pittsburgh and Lincoln have taken similar steps.

“When the governor proposes his budget in February, he’ll likely be conservative,” Wagner said at the board meeting.

Should Pennsylvania go through with the 4.25 percent cut, the university’s state appropriation will have decreased 2.8 percent from last year.

The university is anticipating a 3 percent decrease in funding and has modified its plan accordingly.
“This accentuates a 40-year trend on waning state appropriations and dependence on tuition,” Wagner said at the meeting.

Since 1972, the percentages have flipped: the university is relying twice as much on tuition and state appropriations have declined more than twofold.

Wagner closed his address saying that the university will continue to try and keep tuition down despite these obstacles.

In response to dwindling state funding, the university has encouraged more entrepreneurship among its schools and colleges as a way to gain new sources of revenue. This has made the school operate more like a private institution.

Kaiser said the university has given deans more freedom to initiate new programs and auxiliaries and to expand research.

“Putting them in control of their own destiny, so to speak,” he said.

Unlike a private university, Temple’s reliance on state funding insulates it to extreme cases of market volatility like the recent financial crisis, Kaiser said.

“The more schools depend on private investment, the more they’ll be at-risk,” Kaiser said. “The good news is that we’re a little insulated, but the bad news is that we’re insulated because our endowment isn’t as large.”

Nick Pipitone can be reached at nicholas.pipitone@temple.edu.

President Owl: National campaigns remind us of municipal and state battles.

Every four years, presidential campaigning comes to Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia, to Temple and the student body manages to seem politically energized.

Sen. Hillary Clinton rallied in McGonigle Hall, and last week, Chelsea Clinton appeared in Mitten, as reported by The Temple News today [“Chelsea Clinton visits campus, talks foreign policy with students,” LeAnne Matlach, April 15, 2008]. It became clearer still that the national spotlight was again on Philadelphia’s political climate again when Sen. Barack Obama gave one of the most consequential speeches of our generation at the National Constitution Center, as reported by The Temple News.

In 2004, Sen. John Kerry visited both Temple and the University of Pennsylvania, as reported by The Temple News.

The Temple News ran cover stories on student demonstrations and protests, including a photo of Kim Plank and Jessica Wallen, then members of Temple College Republicans, dressed as a pair of flip flops, criticizing Kerry for changing his stance on campaign issues.

Democracy in action, with students acting as a driving force. Yet we fear now as we feared then, amid all the growth and on-campus development Temple has seen, we can’t seem to get excited about municipal and state elections. Sen. Arlen Specter was facing a challenge from Rep. Joe Hoeffel, now active in Gov. Ed Rendell’s administration, a challenge Specter overcame without many students paying attention, as reported by The Temple News.

Four years later, as Clinton and Obama get ready to do battle on April 22, students have a chance to involve themselves in a host of important local campaigns but find only the biggest fish are worth fishing for, as highlighted by a debate between Temple College Republicans and Democrats.

Set aside challenged Pennsylvania house district primaries in the Northeast’s 179th and South Philly’s 184th, the Democratic primary to fill the State Senate seat of outgoing Sen. Vince Fumo has enormous implications for the city and Mayor Michael Nutter’s administration but is also garnering statewide attention. John Dougherty, Local 98 electrician’s union business manager and Fumo political enemy, is leading in the dollar count, but he’s seeing significant pressure from lawyer Larry Farnese and political activist Anne Dicker.

Yet, that doesn’t seem to excite many Temple students like Hillary or Barack, assuring we can expect Temple to remain politically active once every four years.