Dozens of FAMU jobs are hanging by a string.As Rattler Nation reported in June 2009, FAMU officials used about $4.7M in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fill in part of the gap left by legislative budget cuts. The money helped FAMU avoid cutting many faculty, staff, and administrative positions.
But Florida's budget pictures has gotten worse since then. The state is facing a $3B budget deficit in 2010-2011. That makes additional cuts to the education budget likely, which means next year's stimulus dollars won't stretch as far as this year's did. This is a big problem for FAMU because it doesn’t have the same ability as institutions such as the University of Florida to simply replace stimulus dollars with tuition revenue.
If FAMU is to avoid massive layoffs, organizations such as the FAMU Faculty Senate and campus chapter of the United Faculty of Florida need to get involved in lobbying for tax reform.
The new Florida legislative session is getting starting and there are numerous bipartisan proposals to reverse the slump in tax collections. One is being jointly sponsored by Sen. Evelyn Lynn (R-Ormond Beach) and Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda (D-Tallahassee). They have filed a bill to streamline the process of collecting sales taxes from purchases made over the internet. Florida TaxWatch estimates that the state fails to collect as much as $2B annually from remote sales.
The bill is supported by TaxWatch, Associated Industries of Florida, AARP of Florida, the Florida AFL-CIO, the Florida Association of Counties, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Florida League of Cities, the Florida Children’s Services Council, the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, and the Florida Education Association.
FAMU’s faculty senate and union should be on the capitol supporting this bill and other proposals to reverse the decline in tax revenue. University employees only have a few months left to write legislators, attend rallies, and make their voices heard.
If FAMU employees don’t join the fight to boost the state’s tax coffers, then they shouldn’t be surprised when many of their jobs aren’t included in the 2010-2011 university budget that will be finalized by June. At that point, no amount of protest or complaining will make a difference.
Will someone PLEASE publish the salaries of Dr. Ammons' top officials. Let us get a clear picture of whats going on.
ReplyDeleteNever gonna happen and if u attempt to talk about them your post will be removed...
ReplyDeleteAnd that's the whole problem. Too many people on FAMU's campus talk about administrative salaries but don't talk about SOLUTIONS to the budget problems.
ReplyDeleteComplaining about overpaid administrators is not a SOLUTION. Getting out lobbying the legislature to upgrade its tax collection process is a SOLUTION.
If the legislature stops cutting the budget then the administration won't have to cut faculty or staff jobs. Get it?
NO, we don't get it. There is no way you can justify the salaries of those administrators, when you see the job that they do on a daily basis. Adding more money from the legislature will only fatten their pockets. Money seems to flow up, rather than down.
ReplyDeleteAMEN, 2:23 p.m.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the earlier blog entitled:
ReplyDeleteWednesday, January 27, 2010
FAMU BOT lacks creative vision for revenue
and the comments!
FAMU has used stimulus dollars to save jobs. What happens when next year's education cuts slice into the personnel budget that's propped up with stimulus dollars?
ReplyDeleteJobs get cut.
So many of you don't want to do anything to try and replace those stimulus funds with tax dollars. You just want to sit on the sidelines and complain about administrative salaries.