Last Thursday, PHENOM [Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts] hosted a call-in day with the intention of ‘sav[ing] higher education in the state budget.’ More than 150 students, faculty and community members placed calls to their local senators and state representatives across Massachusetts.

Within the next two weeks, the Massachusetts Senate Committee on Ways and Means will be releasing its report of the FY2010 budget. The purpose of the call-in day was to ‘encourage students to contact their senators and ask for support in increased funding for need-based financial aid,’ said Bliss Requa-Trautz, a junior at UMass and member of PHENOM.

In particular, PHENOM wished to urge the Massachusetts senators to support access to public higher education by increasing funding for MASSGrant, the state’s primary need-based financial aid program.

According to Requa-Trautz, in 1988, MASSGrant covered approximately 80 percent of the cost of attendance at public institutions in Massachusetts. She said it now covers less than 15 percent of the cost.

‘Increasing funding for MASSGrant by $14.1 million would provide awards to over 15,000 students with financial need,’ said Requa-Trautz.

‘We’re seeing that the state does not have enough money to do what it needs to do. The state should put money towards public higher education,’ said Sam Dreyfus, a member of Massachusetts Students Uniting.

One of the proposed ways to increase funding is to increase revenue. According to PHENOM, ‘Massachusetts is in desperate need of revenue because of a long history of reckless tax cuts and the current recession.’

PHENOM proposes that by raising taxes, the state will be able to avoid ‘devastating cuts to social services and education.’

Requa-Trautz said ‘targeting the income tax would be the most progressive way to raise revenue.’

PHENOM is proposing that the state restore the income tax to its 1999 level of 5.95 percent. This increase would raise an additional $1.4 billion. The income tax is currently at a flat 5.3 percent for all taxpayers. Raising the income tax one full percentage to 6.3 percent would result in an additional revenue raise of $2.16 billion.

When asked how the income tax raise is progressive, PHENOM said that the tax is ‘progressive due to exemptions and credits that lessen the impact on low-income individuals ‘- now is the time to restore the state income tax to its 1990s levels.’ PHENOM also went on to say that this raise could be made even more progressive by raising the personal exemption.

Ryan Bell, a student at UMass, attended the call-in day. ‘I’ve never done anything like this before, but I think it is important because public universities provide education for students of the state,’ he said. ‘Those with less money do not have the same opportunities if funding is not increased.’

Lindsay McCluskey, this year’s outgoing SGA Student Trustee, said, ‘even though this is a busy time with finals, it is important for students to be the ones contacting senators ‘- it shows that we are engaged.’

Many of the senators who were contacted said that they were in support of increasing funding for MASSGrant. However, some, such as State Senator Scott Brown, did not support the increase.

Despite some opposition, PHENOM stated, ‘Contacting senators now, while the budget is up for amendments will play an important role in legislative budget decisions.’

Hannah McGoldrick can be reached at [email protected].