Scholarship funding, tax relief discussed
Wendy Holdren
Twenty students from
He explained Higher Education Day as “a chance for students, faculty, and administrators from public and private universities throughout the state to go discuss the philosophies of the university, the initiatives that they are undertaking, and discuss their support or opposition to specific education and higher education related initiatives that the legislature is considering.”
Marshall University, West Virginia University, and
One of the most favored bills was House Bill 2256. This bill, if passed, would give current undergraduate students relief from paying state income taxes and graduates of undergraduate programs relief from state income taxes for a period of two years.
“This would help stimulate the economy quite a bit. You’ll have your most productive people not paying taxes,” Lewis said. “That money will be allocated elsewhere.”
Lewis says when the economy is in a recession, people have less discretionary money, therefore state revenue decreases. “The governor has promised not to cut money on education,” Lewis said. “That’s his number one priority and hopefully we can hold him to that.”
The lack of state funding could affect many students receiving scholarships. The Promise Scholarship is primarily funded from electronic gambling machine revenue and a few table games.
“People who have money and gamble for fun stop gambling because of the attitude around a recession,” Lewis said. “People who have less money gamble more in hopes of building a return from their money.”
Research is being conducted to see if this amount balances. Lewis says he thinks the revenue will decrease, however, because those who gamble for fun spend more money than those who don’t have a lot of money to begin with.
Lewis says the delegates are turning this into a “dichotomous dilemma.” He says the funding of the program will have to be cut and scholarships will be capped, or the standards of the program will be raised and some students will no longer be eligible.
“I think that we’re intelligent enough as a society and as a government to find alternative sources of funding for this program,” Lewis said.
He said that research shows the majority of students who receive the Promise Scholarship would have gone to college anyway. Scholarships are received by upper income families.
He proposes setting an adjusted gross income level cap. Federal adjusted gross income takes into account how many people are in your household, how many dependents you have, etc.
“If this amount is over $150,000 in WV, then you shouldn’t qualify for this scholarship, because you have the means to send someone to school anyway,” Lewis said. This would make the Promise Scholarship not only merit based, but also need based.
One of the conservative delegates opposed this idea, due to the fact that those who make more money have to pay more taxes.
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