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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 6A MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10,1997
EVENTS • ENTERTAINMENT • ISSUES • MUSIC • ART
FROM HEALTH CARE TO TAXES:
When will GTAs get some respect?
Story by Mike Perryman Illustration by David Schell
gta blues
"Their teaching load is high and their salaries are low. We get blood out of the turnips, and I think the turnips have given all the blood they can give."
Leroy Towns, chief of staff for Sen. Pat Roberts, said that the office had lobbied heavily against the proposal by the House.
Richard Hardin
english department chairmen
If the tax-free status of GTA tuition waivers was eliminated, many GTAs either would be unable to afford a graduate education or would find themselves in debt, taking out student loans to help carry the burden of the new tax. The University either would suffer a major blow to its undergraduate teaching force as a result of the decline in GTAs or would be forced to increase GTA salaries by an estimated $2,000 to $4,000 per year per student so that GTAs could meet their new tax burden.
A tax-reform plan that would have required graduate teaching assistants to pay taxes on tuition waivers was defeated by Congress this summer, but the University of Kansas and its GTAs remain a little weary.
Within the plan was a proposal by the House of Representatives to eliminate section 117(d) of tax law, an area that relates to the tax-exempt status of tuition waivers. These waivers are given by many institutions as GTA benefits. Elimination of this section, which would have made waivers taxable income, would have been devastated to GTAs and the University.
walivers was saved, the issue may not have been completely resolved.
Towns said that even though the bill was defeated and the tax-free status of GTA tuition
"You never know about these things," Towns said. "With radical revamping of tax laws, anything could happen. And this topic may come up again."
Towns said the section's elimination had been addressed before and that its future was uncertain.
"It will probably be safe for a while," he said.
"But it is true that whenever Congress meets, people's life and liberty may be safe, but their pocketbooks may not be."
Stephen Mathis, Western Civilization GTA and chairman for the GTA negotiating committee, said he would watch the issue closely.
"The thought of taking out loans just to carry a tax burden like this one would be horrible," he said. "We get paid such measly amounts already,
Mathis said GTAs already had less than admirable benefits and a tax such as this one would be too much.
which means we'd have to take money out of our own pockets to pay for this tax, which is absurd."
Under the current law scenario, a GTA with a 1997 gross income of $8,333 and a projected 1997 income tax of $268 would net $8,065 for 1997.
If section 117(d) was eliminated, a student with a total income of $27,273 of $8,333 plus $18,940 in taxable tuition waivers), would have a projected 1997 income tax of $3,109 and would net only $5,224 for 1997, a difference of $2,841. Although taxable tuition would be substantially lower at the University, the law's effects would be felt by
KU GTAs as well.
Kevin Boyer, executive director of the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students in Chicago, followed the proposal to eliminate section 117(d) and has been trying to spread awareness of the issue.
"Before this summer, I did not believe that tuition waivers for graduate teaching assistants would ever be at risk for taxation," Boyer said. "But this summer's tax bill has taught us to maintain our monitoring of activities in our nation's capital and to ensure that our representatives
understand the value of graduate education and the need to invest in graduate students."
Boyer said that he did not think there was anything in the immediate future that threatened GTAs and that he didn't see any risk in such a tax increase becoming law.
Despite Boyer's optimism, GTAs remain skeptical.
David Young, a department of Spanish and Portuguese GTA, said it was ironic that the elimination of section 117(d) was labeled under a tax-cut package.
"It is easy to try and guise a proposal such as this one under the umbrella of tax reform," Young said.
Young said the proposal was following the trend of a bipartisan effort to increase the tax burden on working-class Americans and University faculty.
"Receiving a net income of $1,000 to $3,000 less would be difficult to imagine," he said. "If this tax were ever imposed, I, just like many GTAs, would go into debt trying to pay for it."
Mathis acknowledged that the University would suffer a major loss if the tax were imposed.
"A lot of schools already provide better benefits than KU," he said. "If this happened and KU couldn't increase GTA salaries, it would make graduate school less attractive, and GTAs would either have to quit or go to a different university."
The University, which employs nearly 1,000 GTAs, lobbied heavily against the proposed bill because much of its undergraduate courses are taught by GTAs.
Provost David Shulenburger said the University needed the tuition waivers to remain tax-free because GTAs were essential to the University.
"If they were taxed, we would have to seek appropriations from somewhere to cover the burden," he said. "But it is difficult at this time to determine where those type of appropriations would come from."
Shulenburger said that if the University could not obtain the needed money to increase GTA salaries, it undoubtedly would see a decline in GTAs.
Richard Hardin, English department chairman, said it was difficult to imagine Kansas appropriating money for increased GTA salaries.
"We are talking about a state that still hasn't even paid health care for GTAs yet," he said.
The University would be in trouble if GTA numbers declined, Hardin said.
"The English department lives on GTAs," he said. "If they had to quit, quite frankly, I don't know what we'd do."
The English department, which employs only about 41 full-time faculty members, is forced to depend upon its part-time faculty, which consists of around 60 GTAs, Hardin said.
"Their teaching load is high, and their salaries are low," he said. "We get blood out of the turnips, and I think the turnips have given all the blood they can give."
Boyer said it was important that GTAs and universities remain informed of what was going on in Washington, D.C.
"Although this summer's tax battles demonstrated that there is widespread support from both parties and the White House for the continued tax-free status of TA tuition waivers, the issue may come up again," Boyer said. "And the best GTAs and universities nationwide can do is get involved and continue to express interest in the issues that affect them."
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