all the different fruits and vegeta-
bles that are out there. The whole 
movement has gotten pretty large 
in the last 15 years or so.”

Michigan Dining also cited 

several sustainability reasons for 
taking this meatless step, includ-
ing to reduce the University’s car-
bon footprint. The United Nations 
estimates that around one-fifth of 
man-made, greenhouse gas emis-
sions come from the meat indus-
try.

A second reason is to reduce 

dining hall water usage.

“Close to 2000 gallons of water 

are needed to produce a single 
pound of beef, where it only takes 
40 gallons of water to produce a 
pound of vegetables,” Cummings 
said.

Cummings mentioned a third 

benefit of going meatless: reduc-
ing Michigan’s fuel dependence. 
In the United States, it takes 
around 40 calories of fossil fuel 
energy to produce one calorie of 
feedlot beef while it takes only 
around 2.2 calories of fossil fuel 
to produce an equivalent amount 
of plant-based protein.

In a press release, Michigan 

Dining said it elected East Quad 
as the pioneer for Meatless Mon-
day in dining hall for two reasons. 
First, a proportion of the student 
community eating at East Quad 
has backed sustainability efforts 
in the past. Second, East Quad 
is located close to the Mosher-
Jordan and South Quad dining 
halls, providing meat eaters with 
nearby options if a meatless meal 
is unappealing.

Though the day’s food options 

were entirely vegetarian, Cum-
mings and his staff strove to cre-
ate a menu that would appeal to 
all types of eaters.

For the “burger and fries peo-

ple,” for example, the kitchen 
staff concocted portobello slid-
ers, which contained marinated 
grilled portobello mushrooms 
on a slider bun with a baby kale 
mix.

“We try to make everything 

every day as fresh and appetiz-
ing as possible, but today we’re 
really going to try to turn it up 
so we can get nothing but posi-
tive comments,because we’d like 
to keep this going,” Cummings 
said.

Yet, for some students, like 

Kinesiology 
freshman 
Ryan 

Armbruster, the accommoda-
tions were not enough.

“I’m paying for this food and I 

don’t think it should be restrict-
ed to certain things. They have 
different stations in there — it 
works well the way it is,” he said. 
“They have the vegan station, 
the vegetarian station and things 
like that. It’s not like I’m com-
pletely condemning it. I’m still 
going to eat there today.”

East Quad’s number of student 

customers did go down today. 
At both breakfast and lunch the 
dining hall saw a decrease in 
about 150 students from a nor-
mal day’s dining numbers. Still, 
Cummings has hope.

“Will we do it again? I don’t 

know,” he said. “I don’t think it 
was a total bust.”

Alongside the negative feed-

back posters hanging on the wall 
outside East Quad’s dining hall 
— which included Armbruster’s 
comments — there were also 
positive feedback postings. Some 
comments included, “It’s better 
for human and environmental 
health,” and “actually v. tasty 
options!”

Cummings said the staff and 

administration will review the 
positive and negative feedback 
before deciding whether Meat-
less Monday will continue. If 
feedback is positive, he said he 
hopes this is an initiative they 
can repeat once a month, or 
maybe even once a week.

bulk of these deficits, he added, 
are caused by staff compensation.

Ann Arbor Police Chief John 

Seto discussed a proposed bud-
get expansion for the police 
department. According to the 
city’s budget impact analysis, the 
police department is requesting 
$290,667 in additional funds for 
2016 and an additional $132,867 
for fiscal year 2017.

The request includes money 

for replacements of police armor 
for 70 police officers, which will 
cost a total of $49,000. Tasers 
for 25 officers are also included 
in the budget projection.

Additionally, 
Seto 
noted 

that by June 30, 2017, 13 of the 
department’s 
25 
supervisors 

will be up for retirement and 
therefore promotions will need 
to be made. The staffing adjust-
ments are estimated to cost 
$35,000.

Larry Collins, chief of the 

Ann Arbor Fire Department, 
said the department is asking 
for $200,666 in additional mon-
ies for 2016 and $103,202 in 2017.

The additional money would 

cover two four-wheel drive 
emergency staff vehicles for 
assistant fire chiefs. Until now, 
stipends allowed assistant fire 
chiefs to use their own vehicles 
for transportation in cases of 
emergency.

An important point for both 

Seto and Collins was accrediting 
their departments by becoming 
members of professional organi-
zations.

Seto said the Ann Arbor 

Police Department was previ-
ously a member of the Commis-

sion for the Accreditation of Law 
Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) 
but left in 2003. He now wants 
the department to regain its 
membership, which is estimated 
to cost a one-time fee of $14,000.

“We will be held to standards 

that are nationally accepted,” 
Seto said. “Much like I speak 
about many times being on the 
same page on training policies 
with local departments, I feel 
it’s just as important to have 
our standards on training and 
policies on the national level as 
well. Receiving that accredita-
tion will give us that process 
and that system.”

He added that he would like 

to make one of the police offi-
cers or detectives a lieutenant to 
take on the process of achieving 
accreditation.

Expressing a similar senti-

ment, Collins said he wants the 
Ann Arbor Fire Department to 
become a member of the Center 
for Public Safety Excellence.

“It’s all about promoting 

excellence 
and 
encouraging 

quality services to the commu-
nity,” Collins said. “It lets us a 
show you in a host of different 
ways what our service package 
is and how we are achieving 
that service package for the dol-
lars that are invested.”

Collins noted he would like to 

hire a part-time intern for three 
years rather than relocating a 
fire department employee for 
the job of moving through the 
accreditation process. Accord-
ing to the budget, the intern 
would cost $72,000 for both fis-
cal years.

The next hearing on the bud-

get process is set for March 9. 
The Council will formally con-
sider the budget May 18.

ward path.

The main impact of this trend 

can be viewed in the balance 
between tuition and state appro-
priations in University budgets.

In the 1970s, the state used to 

pay approximately 75 percent of 
public universities’ operations, 
while the universities’ tuition 
and fees would pay for the rest, 
said Mark Burnham, Michigan 
State University’s vice president 
for governmental affairs.

However, Burnham said the 

trend has now reversed, and 
MSU’s funding from the state is 
now below 22 percent.

This situation is similar at the 

University, as 71.2 percent of the 
University’s budget came from 
tuition and fees for the 2015 fis-
cal year, according to the Uni-
versity’s Funding Snapshot. The 
state contributed 16.4 percent 
of the University’s budget this 
year. These state appropriations 
are a continuation of a down-
ward trend, as state appropria-
tions were around 59 percent 
in 1978, but fell to 32 percent in 
2002, according to DesJardins’s 
research.

“The amount of state support 

has eroded dramatically,” Burn-
ham said.

In an interview last month, 

Cynthia Wilbanks, the Univer-
sity’s vice president for govern-
ment relations, said the state’s 
economic conditions were chal-
lenging from 2002 to 2011, which 
was when Granholm held’s the 
governor’s office.

She said she would argue that 

at times, areas identified as a pri-
ority for gubernatorial admin-
istrations have to be abandoned 
based on factors such as poor 
economic conditions.

“I would make the case that 

each governor has to have their 
set of priorities and wants to 
hold themselves to those priori-
ties unless or until other factors 
that they simply can not control 
really force decisions that may 
not be their favorite thing to do,” 
Wilbanks said.

During 
Granholm’s 
early 

years as governor, about 26 per-
cent of the population in the 
age range 25 to 34 in Michigan 
received a bachelor’s degree or 
higher, which was below the 
national average of 28 percent 
for the same age range. How-
ever, DesJardins wrote this phe-
nomenon should not have been 
surprising because many high 
school graduates went to manu-
facturing jobs, which provided 
a high standard of living com-
pared to jobs in other states not 
requiring a college degree.

“The days of (manufacturing 

jobs) being a viable option are vir-
tually gone, as the auto industry 
continues to lose market share to 
foreign competition, with it the 
jobs that provided an avenue to 
the middle class for a generation 
(or more) of Michigan’s citizens,” 

DesJardins wrote.

Along with drawing high 

school 
students 
straight 
to 

the workforce, the automotive 
industry also affected higher 
education funding.

Because 
the 
“Big 
Three” 

automakers — Ford, General 
Motors and Chrysler — provided 
approximately 80 percent of the 
cars in the world market in 1950, 
the state of Michigan’s tax base 
was heavily dependent on the 
automotive industry, according 
to DesJardins.

As 
time 
progressed, 
the 

Detroit automobile industry’s 
share of the world market fell 
below 25 percent and Michigan’s 
tax revenue suffered. As a result, 
he wrote, higher education fund-
ing was targeted and cut.

Wilbanks 
said 
economic 

activity clearly affects higher 
education funding.

“As much as higher educa-

tion support comes from the 
state’s General Fund, and the 
General Fund is almost entirely 
from revenues that are based 
on economic activity, when the 
economic activity of the state is 
either declining or anemic, the 
opportunity to fund at a high 
level, some state priorities is 
really the $64,000 question,” 
she said.

Echoing the trends observed 

by DesJardins, in an interview 
earlier this month, state Rep. 
Adam Zemke (D–Ann Arbor) 
emphasized that higher educa-
tion cuts aren’t exclusive to the 
Snyder administration.

He said past legislators and 

governors are also to blame for 
the common trend of cutting 
higher education.

“The higher education fund-

ing problems, meaning the lack 
of adequate funding, is an issue 
that has transcended guberna-
torial administrations,” Zemke 
said.

Long-term planning

Most 
recently, 
over 
the 

decade from 2004 to 2014, the 
state’s support for higher edu-
cation decreased by 29 percent, 
according to the think tank the 
Center for Michigan.

John Austin, president of 

the State Board of Education, 
said this decrease amounts to 
approximately $800 million.

Along with this data, the 

National Association of State 
Student Grant and Aid Programs 
recently released an annual 
report which revealed Michigan 
as the worst state in the country 
in regards to the state spending 
money for financial aid over the 
decade from 2003 to 2013. In fis-
cal 2003, the state spent $218.185 
million on college scholarships. 
Fast forward 10 years and the 
state spent $92.674 million in 
the fiscal 2013, which represents 
a $125.511 million decrease.

Austin said he recognized the 

increases made to higher educa-
tion funding the past few years, 
but added that it will be hard to 
recover from the series of cuts.

“It’s beginning to get some 

attention, but it’s been severely 
damaged and has a long way 
to go before we’re arriving at 
enough aid to reverse some of 
the damage and support for 
institutions,” Austin said. “The 
damage has been done.”

Similar to Austin’s view-

point, Zemke said the increases 
to higher education are a posi-
tive sign, but clarified that these 
increases won’t make a big 
impact in the long run. Zemke 
is the vice chair of the House’s 
education committee.

“I’m glad that it’s an increase, 

but I think that we’re still going 
to run into the same problem 
that we’ve been running into,” 
Zemke said, referencing a lack of 
long-term planning.

Burnham 
said 
MSU 
cuts 

approximately $110 million per 
year on a recurring basis due 
to cuts. Burnham added that 
these cuts led to the termina-
tion of more than 40 academic 
programs at MSU, which had 
long-term impacts beyond an 
individual year.

“If we’re going to continue to 

be a competitive institution that 
provides a quality education 
that makes students who gradu-
ate here world class, competi-
tive anywhere in the world, then 
you have to have the faculty and 
facilities that are needed to do 
that,” Burnham said.

At the University, cuts were 

similar. In response to the 2011 
decrease in funding, several aca-
demic programs, including the 
Center for Ethics in Public Life, 
were closed. In recent years, the 
University has launched several 
cost-cutting initiatives such as 
strategic sourcing — purchasing 
supplies and equipment in bulk 
— and the Administrative Ser-
vices Transformation Project, 
which included an initiative to 
congregate some support staff in 
a shared service center.

The 
University 
has 
also 

increased 
its 
development 

efforts to compensate for small-
er state appropriations. The 
current campaign, Victors for 
Michigan, is aiming to raise 
$4 billion over the next several 
years.

Austin 
said 
the 
Snyder 

administration’s small increases 
aren’t innovative and did not 
require long-term planning for 
the future.

“There is no strategy,” he 

said. “It’s just some incremen-
tal change up or down of what 
we’ve already done.”

In an e-mail interview, Dave 

Murray, Snyder’s deputy press 
secretary, refuted the idea that 
Snyder doesn’t have a long-term 
plan for maintaining higher edu-
cation funding.

“Gov. Snyder’s goal is to 

increase the state’s investment 
in higher education, and to make 
sure a college education is with-
in reach for all Michiganders,” 
Murray wrote. “The governor’s 
goal is for 60 percent of residents 
to hold a high-quality degree or 
other credential by 2025.”

difficult for people to vote, to 
restrict people from voting,” 
Bieda said.

Republic committee mem-

bers 
David 
Robertson 
(R–

Grand Blanc), Patrick Colbeck 
(R–Canton), 
Judy 
Emmons 

(R–Sheridan) and Mike Shir-
key (R–Clarklake) could not be 
reached for comment.

Jesse Buchsbaum, chair of 

Voice Your Vote, a nonpartisan 
Central Student Government 
initiative aimed at engaging 
students in politics, said ease 
in voting is particularly impor-
tant for student voters.

“Because students have so 

much going on in their lives 
all the time, students are most 
likely to vote if the process is 
very, very easy for them,” he 
said.

To curb the potential aver-

sion students may feel toward 
toward both registering and 
going out to vote, Voice Your 
Vote aims to help students 
along and make the process as 
easy as possible. Along with 

educating students on both 
issues and candidates during 
election years, Voice Your Vote 
also encourages students to 
register by going door-to-door 
in residence halls and holding 
booths in the Diag.

Despite the group’s efforts 

to register and educate vot-
ers, Buchsbaum said efforts 
are still somewhat hindered by 
current law.

He said the bill’s passage 

would have mixed results for 
students on campus because it 
would only help students reg-
istered to vote in Michigan. 
Though the legislation would 
allow Michigan residents to 
vote for the first time while 
remaining in Ann Arbor, the 
bill would have no effect on 
out-of-state students, as their 
home state legislature may not 
allow first-time absentee vot-
ing.

“Most states don’t have laws 

where first time voters can 
vote absentee; you have to vote 
in person,” Buchsbaum said. 
“So, because many students at 
Michigan are still from out-
of-state, it may cause a decent 
amount of confusion.”

Martin also said Michigan 

currently spends less per capita 
on infrastructure than most 
other states.

The 
Coalition 
Against 

Higher 
Taxes 
and 
Special 

Interest Deals, one of several 
committees formed in opposi-
tion to Snyder’s plan, agrees 
that Michigan roads are in a 
state of disrepair. However, 
Randall Thompson, a spokes-
person for the group, said the 
committee does not believe 
Snyder’s current proposal is the 
right remedy.

Thompson said the group 

opposes Proposal 1. He said $1.2 
billion of the $2 billion raised by 
the proposal would go toward 
road funding, with the remain-
ing 40 percent funneled toward 
other projects.

He said the Snyder admin-

istration claimed it would use 
that remaining 40 percent for 
an income tax credit as well as 
to fund education, public trans-
portation and municipalities.

However, Thompson said the 

Snyder administration had to 
give out “sweetheart deals” to 
these interests so that the pro-
posal would have enough sup-
port to pass in May.

“(The administration’s) sup-

port of Proposal 2015-1 requires 
$700 million of other invest-
ments to special interests in 
order for us to fix our roads,” 
Thompson said. “We believe 

that Michigan roads are a prob-
lem — but we shouldn’t have to 
pay out $700 million to special 
interests to have the opportu-
nity to fix the roads.”

Martin said the $700 mil-

lion figure is mostly a realloca-
tion of funds that these groups 
already received from the sales 
tax on fuel, but will now come 
from the state sales tax revenue.

Martin said the proposal 

increases the state govern-
ment’s accountability and cre-
ates a fairer taxation structure 
for taxpayers.

“Right now, the 6-percent 

state sales tax on gasoline 
doesn’t go to fix roads and 
bridges,” Martin said. “The pol-
iticians in Lansing can basically 
spend that money wherever 
they want, and that’s wrong. We 
shouldn’t be paying taxes on gas 
that aren’t used to fix the roads 
and bridges.”

Martin said Proposal 1 would 

guarantee all tax revenue on 
the proposed new (wholesale) 
fuel tax would go to road fund-
ing.

The groups also disagree on 

the potential effects of a hike in 
the sales tax for consumers.

Thompson 
said 
such 
an 

increase would make it more 
difficult for many Michigan 
taxpayers to afford their taxes. 
He said the tax increase would 
strongly 
affect 
low-income 

taxpayers because it would 
take a larger chunk out of their 
monthly budgets than it would 
for higher income residents. 
These types of taxes are often 

termed regressive taxes.

Opposition groups have said 

the proposal could have a net 
impact of costing taxpayers $2 
billion per year.

“A guy making a million dol-

lars a year — is he really going 
to miss 1-percent sales tax? No, 
because he can already meet 
his basic needs,” Thompson 
said. “But to a single mom or a 
college student, 1-percent sales 
tax? That’s an additional 16.7 
percent (in tax) on every single 
thing you purchase.”

Martin argued it would be 

very difficult to calculate the 
cost to taxpayers of this pro-
posal. 
Whether 
a 
taxpayer 

would see a net gain or a net 
loss if Proposal 1 were enacted 
would depend on how much 
they drive, how much fuel they 
buy and how much they spend 
on sales-taxable items, he said.

“The working poor definite-

ly get a tax cut here,” Martin 
added. “There’s a tax cut in this 
for the working poor: an income 
tax credit that was abolished 
years ago is restored under this 
proposal.”

Donald 
Grimes, 
senior 

research associate at the Uni-
versity’s Institute for Research 
on Labor, Employment and 
the Economy, said in an e-mail 
interview Michigan residents 
would see benefits from the 
proposal.

“The residents will have a 

better driving experience and 
less money spent on vehicle 
repairs,” he said.

Grimes also said the proposal 

will create jobs in the state due 
to increased construction. He 
said improving the state’s roads 
would reduce the cost of trans-
portation and consequently the 
cost of doing business in Michi-
gan, encouraging job creation.

“The taxpayers will be get-

ting something for their money 
when the money is spent on 
roads even if they are not one 
of the people who will ben-
efit from the additional jobs,” 
Grimes said.

The University’s Center for 

Local, State, and Urban Policy 
released a report Monday sur-
veying Michigan local leaders’ 
views on road conditions and 
road funding in the state.

As part of the Michigan Pub-

lic Policy Survey, CLOSUP sur-
veyed 1,356 local government 
leaders and found that while 
road conditions vary across 
Michigan, there is widespread 
agreement among those lead-
ers that it would take a major 
increase in state funding to 
simply maintain current road 
conditions. Survey respondents 
largely said improving roads 
would require an overhaul of 
state funding.

CLOSUP found that 71 per-

cent of local officials say they 
are mostly or only able to focus 
on short-term fixes, like filling 
potholes, as opposed to practic-
ing long-term management.

“Overall, 65 percent of local 

leaders say they would have 
significant problems improv-
ing roads and bridges within 
their jurisdictions if the state 

does not significantly increase 
road funding,” a release on the 
survey said. “In fact, a major-
ity (53 percent) say it would be 
a significant problem just to 
maintain their roads if the state 
does not significantly increase 
funding.”

Safe Roads Yes and the Coali-

tion Against Higher Taxes and 
Special Interest Deals have 
received support from a variety 
of demographics and from both 
Democrats and Republicans.

Safe Roads Yes has a diverse 

membership, including school 
districts, police officers, county 
sheriff departments, business 
organizations and local units of 
government, Martin said.

As of Feb. 10, the commit-

tee had reported contributions 
of $3.2 million in a campaign 
finance statement, including 
support from the Michigan 
Infrastructure and Transporta-
tion Association, as well as sev-
eral other infrastructure and 
transportation-related groups.

In contrast, The Coalition 

Against Higher Taxes and Spe-
cial Interest Groups said they 
rely 
on 
small-denomination 

checks from residents across 
the state.

Both Martin and Thompson 

said their groups aim to turn 
out voters to the polls.

“We’ve got to have average 

citizens, got to have college stu-
dents, families and so on that 
get on board and make sure 
that their friends, loved ones, 
coworkers and fellow students 
vote,” Thompson said.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Tuesday, February 24, 2015 — 3

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