Dear  Commons Community,

Arizona voted to boost taxes on high earners in order to provide more money to public schools, marking a major win for the Red for Ed movement that began with a wave of teacher strikes in several states two years ago.

Proposition 208, dubbed Invest in Ed, will go into effect next year to fund salaries and training programs for teachers and support staff at public schools and public charters.

The Associated Press called the race late Thursday, with “yes” votes leading “no” 52% to 48%.

The additional 3.5% tax on income will apply to earnings above $250,000 for single filers and $500,000 for joint filers. It would be added to Arizona’s current top tax rate of 4.54%.

Backers of the measure estimate it will put an additional $940 million annually into the state’s public K-12 school system.

Arizona teachers were part of the historic series of strikes that hit public schools around the country, starting in early 2018. The educators were protesting years of disinvestment in public schools that led to staff shortages and underfunded classrooms. Even though the strikes temporarily shut down schools, the public by and large supported teachers’ efforts to boost funding for the education system.

The results of Tuesday’s vote show Arizonans still like the idea of pumping more money into schools even if it means higher taxes for some residents. Polling ahead of the vote showed broad public support for the proposal crossing party lines, with two-thirds of respondents saying they approved of the tax. But the result ended up much closer.

Teachers and their unions pushed for a tax increase on high earners in 2018, but the Arizona Supreme Court ordered that the initiative be removed from that year’s ballot due to the language used in the petition. This year’s ballot initiative did not run into the same problem.

Teacher unions helped fund the Arizona initiative, saying school districts pay staff too little to attract and retain talent. The average teacher salary in Arizona was $50,353 during the 2018-19 school year, giving it a rank of 43 out of 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the country.

Under Prop. 208, half the money raised would go toward salaries for classroom staff, a quarter toward salaries for school support staff, and the rest toward retention and training programs. According to The Arizona Daily Star, only around 90,000 Arizona residents earn enough money to be hit by the tax surcharge.

The ballot measure drew opposition from state Republican leaders including Gov. Doug Ducey, who said it would hurt small business owners whose earnings top the $250,000 mark.

Business lobbies lined up in opposition to the proposal as well, with the state Chamber of Commerce pouring more than $8 million to fight it in the final stretch. But initiative supporters still outspent the opposition by a healthy margin, according to Ballotpedia.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

To address the growing wage gap between chief executives and workers, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly approved what is believed to be the nation’s first tax aimed at pay inequity. As reported by NBC News.

The “Overpaid Executive Tax,” formally known as Proposition L, will charge any company that does business in San Francisco and has a top executive earning over 100 times more than their “typical local worker,” according to the tax’s author, Matt Haney, a member of the city’s Board of Supervisors.

Companies with top executives who fall into this category must pay a 0.1 percent surcharge on their annual business taxes. The surcharge increases by 0.1 percent per factor of 100, topping out at 0.6 percent. So top earners making 200 times more than the average worker pay a 0.2 percent tax and so on.

San Francisco voters embraced this tax at a time when CEO compensation is surging. A study published by the Economic Policy Institute found that chief executive compensation rose 14 percent in 2019 to $21.3 million. Chief executives now earn 320 times as much as a typical worker.

The latest ruling applies to a breadth of companies. While Portland, Oregon, has a similar measure, which passed in 2018, that tax applies only to publicly held companies. This measure affects both privately and publicly held companies. This tax not only affects large, local firms like Salesforce, but also large corporations that do business in the city, like Visa and J.P. Morgan.

Haney wrote on Twitter that the proposition would generate “up to $140 million” that could be used to “support our health and public health systems, which are deeply strained from the consequences of inequality. We will hire nurses, social workers and emergency responders, and expand access and treatment.”

A municipal analysis estimated more conservatively that the tax would bring in approximately $60 million to $140 million, but noted that the amount could vary year to year.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

This week’s Science has an article that questions the decision by which the FDA entered into agreement with the company, Gilead Sciences, to develop the drug remdesivir to treat COVID-19.  Essentially the FDA and the European Union entered into the agreement just after a major study found that remdesivir had little value.  It is indicative of how careful our government needs to be NOT to rush the development of drugs needed to combat COVID.

The entire article is below.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Trump, who has complained for weeks about mail-in ballots, escalated his allegations last evening, saying at the White House that the ballot-counting process is unfair and corrupt. Trump did not back up his claims with any details or evidence, and state and federal officials have not reported any instances of widespread voter fraud.  As reported by the Associated Press.

“Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois, tweeted that the president’s claims of fraud are “getting insane.” If Trump has “legit” concerns about fraud, they need to be based on evidence and taken to court, Kinzinger said, adding, “STOP Spreading debunked misinformation.”

Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, a potential 2024 presidential hopeful who has often criticized Trump, said unequivocally: “There is no defense for the President’s comments tonight undermining our Democratic process. America is counting the votes, and we must respect the results as we always have before.”

“No election or person is more important than our Democracy,” Hogan said on Twitter.

Other criticism, though less direct, came from members of Congress. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who spoke at a recent Trump campaign rally, said in a tweet that if any candidate believes “a state is violating election laws they have a right to challenge it in court & produce evidence in support of their claims.”

Rubio said earlier: “Taking days to count legally cast votes is NOT fraud. And court challenges to votes cast after the legal voting deadline is NOT suppression.”

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) pushed back against President Trump‘s  claim that the election is being stolen, warning that his rhetoric is only inflaming partisan tensions.

Romney, in a statement posted to Twitter, said the president was “right” to “exhaust legal remedies,” including asking for recounts and that alleged voting irregularities be investigated, but “wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen.”

“Doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world, weakens the institutions that lie at the foundation of the Republic and recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions,” Romney added

The comments by the Republican lawmakers and other GOP leaders were rare, public rebukes of Trump, who has demanded — and generally received — loyalty from fellow Republicans throughout his four-year term. Most in the GOP take pains to avoid directly criticizing Trump, even when they find his conduct unhelpful or offensive to their values and goals.

Rep. Will Hurd, a Texas Republican who did not seek reelection, called Trump’s comments about corruption “dangerous” and “wrong.” Trump’s remarks undermine the U.S. political process and “the very foundation this nation was built upon,” Hurd said. “Every American should have his or her vote counted.”

Finally, we are beginning to see some cracks in the blind loyalty that elected Republican officials have shown Trump since he was elected president.

Better late than never!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

New York Times opinion writer, Roxane Gay, has a piece today asking Americans whether they are ready to fight for the future of our country.   She assumes that Joe Biden will win the presidency, but will face a difficult four years especially with a Republican-controlled US Senate.  She makes a plea to put aside our differences especially those related to race and to come together for the good of us all.

Her conclusion is:

“This is America, a country desperately divided, and desperately flawed. The future of this country is uncertain but it is not hopeless. I am ready to fight for that future, no matter what it holds. Are you?”

Below is her entire op-ed.

Tony

 ——————————————

New York Times

This Is America

The past four years have shattered my faith. But I’m ready to fight for our future. Are you?

By Roxane Gay

Contributing Opinion Writer.

Nov. 5, 2020

Joe Biden appears poised to win the presidency, but his win will not be a landslide. And that’s fine. A win is a win and the margin of that win only sweetens the victory. Democrats can and should celebrate this win if it does, indeed, come to pass.

And still, many of us are disappointed, for good reason. Republicans are likely to maintain control of the Senate, which will make enacting progressive legislation nearly impossible. Odious politicians like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham were re-elected. Though Mr. Biden will probably win more votes than any previous presidential candidate, that President Trump was a contender at all is a disgrace. That Mr. Trump has received nearly 70 million votes is a disgrace. And it says a lot about this country that too many people refuse to face.

This is America. This is not an aberration. This is indeed our country and who the proverbial “we” are. The way this election has played out shouldn’t be a surprise if you’ve been paying attention or if you understand racism and how systemic it really is. Polling can account for a great many factors, but unless they ask about the extent to which racism motivates voters — and find a way to get honest answers on this topic — they will never be able to account for this.

Some Trump voters are proud about their political affiliation. They attend his rallies. They drive around with their cars draped in Trump posters and flags and other paraphernalia. They proudly crow about America and pride and nationalism. They are the subjects of fawning profiles that aim to explain their voting tendencies as the result of “economic anxiety,” as if they are tragically misunderstood. They aren’t. We know exactly who they are.

And then there are the other Trump supporters, the ones who are ashamed. The ones who want to seem urbane. The ones who want to be invited to all the good parties. They lie to pollsters. They lie to family and friends. And when they fill out their ballots, they finally tell the truth. That is their right. We live in a democracy, or at least we say we do.

I expect to hear a lot of frenzied political discourse over the next several months. I imagine pundits will try to understand how the 2020 election panned out and why. Too many white liberals will obsess over early exit polls indicating that 20 percent of Black men and a significant number of the overly broad categories of Latinos and Asians voted for Mr. Trump. They’ll do this instead of reckoning with how more white women voted for the president this time around and how white men remain the most significant demographic of his base. They will say that once more, Black women saved America from itself, which of course, we did, even though some things don’t deserve salvation.

Many will say it was identity politics — which, in their minds means a focus by Democrats on the experiences of marginalized people, which some find distasteful — that kept Mr. Biden from winning by a larger margin. They may be right, but not for the reasons they mean. There is no greater identity politics than that of white people trying to build a firewall around what remains of their empire as this country’s demographics continue to shift.

The United States is not at all united. We live in two countries. In one, people are willing to grapple with racism and bigotry. We acknowledge that women have a right to bodily autonomy, that every American has a right to vote and the right to health care and the right to a fair living wage. We understand that this is a country of abundance and that the only reason economic disparity exists is because of a continued government refusal to tax the wealthy proportionally.

The other United States is committed to defending white supremacy and patriarchy at all costs. Its citizens are the people who believe in QAnon conspiracy theories and take Mr. Trump’s misinformation as gospel. They see America as a country of scarcity, where there will never be enough of anything to go around, so it is every man and woman for themselves.

They are not concerned with the collective, because they believe any success they achieve by virtue of their white privilege is achieved by virtue of merit. They see equity as oppression. They are so terrified, in fact, that as the final votes were counted in Detroit, a group of them swarmed the venue shouting, “Stop the count.” In Arizona, others swarmed a venue shouting, “Count the votes.” The citizens of this version of America only believe in democracy that serves their interests.

I do not know how we move forward from this moment. I am optimistic, certainly. I am excited that Kamala Harris will be the first Black woman vice president. I am excited that Mr. Biden will not lead and legislate via social media, that he is competent and that he may not lead the revolution but he will, certainly, lead the country.

I am also worried. I am worried about what Mr. Trump’s court-packing will mean for voting rights, reproductive freedom and L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights. I am worried that my marriage is in danger. I am worried that the police will continue to act as if Black lives don’t matter, committing extrajudicial murders with impunity. I am worried that the yawning chasms between the poor and middle class and wealthy will grow ever wider. I am worried that too many people are too comfortable in their lives to care about these problems.

I’ll be honest. The past four years have shattered my faith in just about everything. I feel ridiculous saying that. I feel ridiculous that I was so confident in a Hillary Clinton victory, that I believed that if a terrible person was elected president, checks and balances would minimize the damage he could do. Since Mr. Trump’s election, we have watched him and the Republican Party execute their plans systematically and relentlessly. They have dismantled democratic norms with vigor. We have seen an endless parade of horrors, from families being separated at the Mexican border, to a shattered economy, to an administration completely indifferent to a pandemic that continues to ravage the country. And the list goes on and on. Atrocity only begets more atrocity.

At the same time, the past four years have energized me. They have moved me further left from the comfort of left of center. I have become more active and engaged in my community. I find my sociopolitical stances changing toward real progressive values. I am not the same woman I was and I am grateful for that, even if I hate what brought me to this point.

For much of the 2020 election cycle, many of us wanted anyone but Donald Trump as president because literally anyone but Mr. Trump would be an improvement. The bar he set was subterranean. As the Democratic field narrowed, there was time to consider who would best serve the country, but even as we found our preferred candidates, it was clear that getting Mr. Trump out of office would only be the beginning of the work. That’s where things stand. The state of this country will improve if and when Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States, but a great many things will stay exactly the same unless we remain as committed to progress under his administration as we were under Mr. Trump’s.

This is America, a country desperately divided, and desperately flawed. The future of this country is uncertain but it is not hopeless. I am ready to fight for that future, no matter what it holds. Are you?

Robin Garrell

Dear Commons Community,

Robin Garrell, President of the CUNY Graduate Center, sent out an email yesterday to the faculty and students, urging that while we wait the results of the 2020 election, we should not despair regardless of the outcome because “upholding democracy and making meaningful change require effort and commitment.”   Our deeply polarized country voted in numbers that shattered all previous elections.  When all the votes are counted close to 150 million people will have exercised their rights as Americans.  It is likely that sometime today (Friday, November 6th), Joe Biden will have earned the 270 votes needed to win the electoral college majority.  However, we know that there will be judicial challenges and exactly how they will all play out is not certain.  Regardless, all of us should heed President Garrell’s advice that in our everyday lives going forward, we should not despair and do what we can for our democracy.

Below is her entire message.

Tony

———————————————————–

Dear Colleagues,

As we anxiously await the final results of the U.S. election, we should feel deeply encouraged by our tremendous participation in the process. During a pandemic we voted in historic numbers. Many in our community spent time writing letters, making calls, and sending texts to get out the vote all over the country. We have seen challenges to our democracy and called them out. Yes, establishing the outcome of the election will take time. We accept this because we want every vote to count.

Upholding democracy and making meaningful change require effort and commitment. The same is true for the important work that we do every day at The Graduate Center. We stand for reason and research, dialogue, and belief in facts and data. Our work as scholars and teachers is the very essence of graduate education for the public good.

Let this be a reminder of our important mission and the strength of our community. Working together to advance knowledge and promote social justice, we will catalyze change and strengthen the democratic values that set this nation apart.

With best wishes,

Robin L. Garrell
President

Max Boot

Dear Commons Community,

Max Boot, a conservative columnist,  lamented the closeness of the 2020 election in his latest op-ed for The Washington Post, writing “this wasn’t the blue wave election that I wanted or the nation needed.”

“It should not have been this close,” said Boot, recalling President Donald Trump’s catalog of failings, from his lies, divisive rhetoric and impeachment to his catastrophic handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the cratering of the economy.

“That Trump did so well in the election after doing so badly as president is mind-boggling and disturbing,” wrote the never-Trump pundit who quit the GOP in 2016. “So too is the fact that Republicans seem to have paid little price for allowing him to ride roughshod over the Constitution, lock kids in cages and spread the poison of nativism and racism,” he added.

Boot said the election’s message was “simple if disheartening: demagoguery and dishonesty work.”

“That does not augur well for our future, even if the likely defeat of Trump himself is an enormous achievement,” he concluded. “I recently wrote: “We’re better than this. Aren’t we?” We may not be.”

He may be right!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodríguez sent a notice yesterday describing the University’s budget.  It is not good.  New York State and New York City budget reductions combined with reduced revenue due to a 5.1 percent decline in enrollment are forcing the Chancellor to make difficult decisions.  He has instituted a personnel vacancy freeze; the reduction of part-time personnel hours; the elimination of travel; and enhanced energy savings.  In addition, all managerial employees, who serve at the highest levels of leadership throughout the University, will be furloughed five days this fiscal year.  With respect to the decline in enrollment, I am given to understand that several colleges are showing increases while there are more serious declines in others especially among the community colleges.  

Below is the Chancellor’s full message.

Tony

——————————————————

OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR

Dear CUNY Faculty and Staff:

As we await the final outcome of yesterday’s presidential election, and following my last letter about our financial situation, I wanted to share the latest news about CUNY’s budget process and the fiscal outlook that informs it.

It pains me to report that CUNY faces a budget shortfall of millions for the current fiscal year ending in June 2021. As a result of the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, the University has experienced reductions in revenue, seen public funding significantly reduced and been obliged to take on unplanned emergency expenditures. We have been forced to make decisions that only months ago seemed unthinkable.

This is an overview of the various fiscal hurdles we face:

• The City’s recently adopted FY21 budget reduced CUNY funding by $46.3 million, or about 9 percent of the total operating budget of all of our community colleges.
• CUNY spent almost $75 million on unplanned emergency costs related to the pandemic, expenses that included the purchase of laptops and iPads for students, the cost for deep cleaning buildings, overtime costs for public safety and facilities personnel, the purchase of PPEs, cleaning products, signage and other costs associated with the transitioning to distance learning across the system.
• The State is temporarily withholding 20 percent of senior college aid, community college FTE (full-time equivalent) aid, and TAP. If there is no additional assistance from the federal government for New York State, we are facing a real risk of a permanent cut.
• CUNY’s 5.1 percent decline in University-wide enrollment seen so far will result in a $52 million loss of revenue for the University this year.
• CUNY lost $32 million in revenue for the Spring 2020 semester due to a reduction in tuition and other revenue collections.

In light of the uncertainties created by the absence of federal funding, we delayed the presentation and approval process of the 2020-21 CUNY budget, a practice that would have otherwise taken place in May or June. In the absence of a finalized budget, we have delayed Board consideration of a number of potential actions, including the proposed predictable tuition increase and student health and wellness fee. In the meantime, the University has taken the following measures to help shore up the University’s finances and support its students, faculty and staff:

• The Vacancy Review Board, established in April following a hiring and spending freeze, has reduced payroll costs by keeping vacant or consolidating the responsibilities of existing positions, saving the University $33 million in annualized costs as of September. The University’s total full-time staffing level has been reduced by 468 positions since the hiring freeze was announced.
• After the initial authorization of our colleges to cover only short-term expenses and operate on a month-by-month basis, we have now approved semester-based budgets for colleges. In accordance with current state budget management practice mentioned above, the University continues to withhold 20 percent of state funding from all college budgets and Central offices.
• The federal government allocated $250 million to CUNY earlier this year as part of the CARES Act. That included $118 million in direct aid to students, almost all of which has been distributed to 197,000 students so far. The remaining $132 million is to be distributed as part of the University’s FY 2021 budget. We recently allocated $41 million of the funds to cover colleges’ reimbursement for student tuition and fees, health and wellness expenses and IT infrastructure expenses.
• As a result of our sustained transition to distance learning, we have reduced costs through the consolidation of campus space; the reduction of part-time personnel hours; the elimination of travel; and enhanced energy savings. The increase of 16% in our Summer Session enrollment also generated additional revenue that has helped defray costs incurred this fall.

While CUNY, along with state and city officials have lobbied the federal government to exercise leadership and provide the level of aid needed to stave off deep cuts to academic programs and student support services, my team has worked with the Board of Trustees to offset the losses and ensure the University’s uninterrupted operation.

Unfortunately, with no sign of relief from the federal government, I am announcing an additional spending control measure:

• All managerial employees under the Executive Compensation Plan (ECP), committed administrators who serve at the highest levels of leadership throughout the University, will be furloughed five days this fiscal year. As ECP members, the furloughs also impact myself and college presidents and deans. Guidance on how the furloughs will work will be forthcoming.

We all have had to make sacrifices this year, and unfortunately, I expect more potentially difficult decisions in the near term. The elections will very likely have an impact on the financial situation of our state and city. We will work closely with our partners to understand the implications to CUNY and make adjustments in our decisions as needed.

I thank you for your understanding, and will continue to keep you apprised as the way forward becomes clearer and we consider additional strategies to stabilize our University and drive it onward.

Sincerely,

Felo

Dear Commons Community,

After two days of reporting presidential election results, neither Donald Trump or Joe Biden can claim victory.  The above swing state tallies (as of 11/5/20 – 3:00 am EST) show that six states are still in play.  Depending upon the final votes, either candidate can still win. Trump needs to win almost all of the above states and probably at least four.  Biden needs to win at least two.  Listening to the news commentators, Biden is making significant moves in Pennsylvania and Georgia while Trump is making a move in Arizona. The map above is courtesy of the Associated Press.

To quote New York Yankee great Yogi Berra AGAIN: “It ain’t over until it’s over.” 

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

After more than a year of campaigning for president by Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and after yesterday’s election, we still don’t know who is going to be president. Because of the number of early mail-in ballots, votes have not been counted in several key states including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia.  The color-coded map above courtesy of the Associated Press shows where the election stood in each state.  Keep  in mind that the numbers keep changing.

To quote New York Yankee great Yogi Berra: “It ain’t over until it’s over.” 

I was up until 3:30 am last night watching election returns and am going back to bed.

Tony