Stephen Philip Johnson, Cornell's executive director of government relations, looked last week like a man pausing for a few moments of peace before gearing up to rejoin the battle.
Johnson was leaving soon for Albany and then on to Washington, D.C. But before departing he took some time to tick off the many efforts he and others on campus and across the country have been mounting in support of a federal tax bill that will greatly impact higher education for years to come.
Working under the general direction of Henrik N. Dullea, vice president for university relations, Johnson, members of his staff and numerous other Cornellians have been working around the clock to mobilize congressional support for the Senate-approved version of the tax bill -- now in the House-Senate Conference Committee -- which would provide more than $32 billion in education-related tax breaks. They have been meeting with higher education advisory and professional groups, mobilizing other higher education institutions and working with members of New York state's congressional delegation to kill provisions in the House bill that would impose costly new taxes on the higher education community.
And the latest trips Johnson is set to make to Albany and Washington will involve more of the same, buttonholing state legislators and congressmen, caucusing with members of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU) and with State University of New York (SUNY) government affairs staff members and others to strategize the campaign to draft a tax bill favorable to higher education.
"This issue has galvanized members of the campus community. We're being inundated with calls and electronic messages," Johnson said. "People rightly perceive it as a direct threat to higher education and to themselves, and they want us to act on their behalf, which we're doing." Added Michael Voiland, senior legislative associate for government affairs: "They also want us to tell them how they can take action. We're telling everyone to write their congressional representatives -- don't send e-mail, as most politicians still prefer paper -- and tell them they consider provisions of the House bill unacceptable."
Johnson pointed out that Cornell President Hunter Rawlings has sent two letters to members of the state congressional delegation. The first expressed concern over the House bill, which, Rawlings wrote, "would adversely impact many segments of the higher education community." In the second letter, he urged support of the Senate bill.
Already, Johnson said, the higher education community's efforts have helped win the backing of U.S. Sens. Alfonse D'Amato and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Moynihan is a member of the Conference Committee and D'Amato is on the Senate Finance Committee, so their opinions carry considerable weight.
In his letters, Rawlings wrote that while Cornell endorses provisions in both the House and Senate bills to give a tax credit to families with children in college, tax deductions for college tuition, creation of educational savings accounts and penalty-free IRA withdrawals, the Senate bill provides greater support than the House bill to students, faculty and staff at higher education institutions.
The Senate measure includes a $1,500 tax credit to help families pay for tuition, a tax deduction for interest paid on student loans and a tax exemption on tuition payments made for workers by their employers.
But several elements of the House bill -- which would provide about $31 billion in tax breaks to help people pay for college -- have alarmed Cornellians and prompted the onslaught of phone calls and e-mail messages to Johnson's office and elsewhere on campus. Under the House plan:
Anne Shapiro, the university's tax manager, said her office has been getting calls from faculty and staff concerned about the House provisions. "Employees are very concerned that we won't be able to rescind the current taxability of the employee graduate degree program and that the tuition benefits provided to their children (CCTS) may be taxed. And faculty are concerned about their graduate students, whose tuition remission may become taxable."
Shapiro said that while her office does no lobbying on these issues, she tries to answer technical questions about the current tax code and the proposals. And, she added, callers were quite pleased to hear that government relations staff members are lobbying for them.
"They're worried," Shapiro said, "and they feel better knowing that Cornell is mobilized and fighting on their behalf."
E. Scott Maynes, emeritus professor of consumer economics and chair of the University Benefits Committee, said the committee has sent to members of Congress a letter on behalf of employees urging Congress to retain the tax-free status of remitted tuition for university employees and their families and of TIAA-CREF.
"A lot of people have made life plans based on these benefits," Maynes said. "They rely on these provisions."
He noted that a support staff member in his office would not have been able to send her four children to Cornell without these tax provisions. "And there are many, many others just like her out there," he added.
Johnson noted that Cornellians come from various congressional districts, and by contacting their congressmen, they are helping to extend the reach of the university's efforts into the very heart of the House-Senate Conference Committee now seeking agreement on the bill.
"Politics is all local," Johnson said, "so the key is to figure out who is best to approach and by whom. Politics is also a series of trade-offs, and you have to let the politicians know what's important to you. Cornellians are reaching out, and my staff and I are coordinating that effort, as well as continuing the individual, one-on-one outreach that's so important and so effective in such times.
"We're letting them know that higher education is watching. This tax bill will not be passed in a vacuum. We're watching, and members of the entire Cornell community are watching. And not just watching -- we're acting, and that's the best way to get a tax bill that's most favorable to higher education."