Budget Cuts

This morning, one of my good friends I went to college with at WVU asked me a question that I hadn't given a lot of thought to as of late, but bears discussion here. He asked me about the planned budget cuts our governor is planning to make, and how it will affect me.

Look, to most of the nation, Kansas is a joke, and a running one at that. It's right up there with Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and West Virginia (the latter of which, ironically, is my home state) on the list of "the most backward states in the union." Our (Republican) governor, who I shall not name here in this blog but will state that, ahem, #heblowsalot, proposed early this year that the Kansas Arts Commission should be dismantled and disbanded, which would make Kansas the only state in the union where no federal funding would be given to the arts or anything arts-related, such as museums, galleries, theaters, any sort of music or performance halls, etc. This means no more poet laureates -- no laureates of any kind, actually -- no money or recognition for anything arts-related at all. This also extends and/or filters down, of course, to any state-or-federal-funded programs even tangentially associated with the arts, and may eventually involve the possible loss-of-funding for liberal arts programs within colleges and universities, though it hasn't gone that far yet.

I have a liberal arts degree. I am getting my Masters of Fine Arts in not only Creative Writing, but in Poetry, of all things, at a state-run university here that has already suffered numerous cutbacks in just the past two or three years, just emerged from a hiring freeze, and in a department that just now had enough money to hire a second poetry professor this past semester after the other one died over two years ago. In the spring, our program director is on sabbatical, at least two other professors in the department (if not more) are retiring, and many of the new recruits this fall are incredibly dissatisfied with the program itself. That's not counting, of course, those of us who have been there much longer than they have and hate the program that much more.

I am not one of those people, by the way. I'm fine with the program only because I'm old enough and have enough life experience to know that the outside world, working in retail and other private-sector jobs is much, much worse, even if it does pay more (well, sometimes it does). I actually like the department, I like the program, and I like most (if not all) of the people in it. It sure as fuck beats stocking shelves for nine hours every night, or scrubbing glassware in a laboratory, even if due to my low pay I have a whole $40-something in my checking account right now. As I've said before, I'm grateful to be a part of the program simply because I have nothing else going for me in my life.

So, as to my friend's question, this was my reply:

Not sure as of right now. As far as I know, the creative writing program at [Flat State University] isn't going anywhere anytime soon -- we've recently breached several lists of "best small MFA programs in the country" within the past year or so, and the program is producing really good writers who go on to be successful. I'd say that it's possible our pay might get cut if it weren't for the fact that it's already *really* low (read: about half of what GTAs at other state schools, like [big state school] and [other big state school], make, and about $4k-5k a year less than WVU). Our taxes are through the roof here too, so there's not much more they could do to hurt us there, either. Income tax for us GTAs *tripled* this past year alone. So, really, who knows what could happen -- but it's not going to be anything good.

This is all, to the best of my knowledge, true. The taxes thing is no lie; when I started in fall 2010 as a GTA, we were getting paid $393.73 every two weeks. I remember this figure because I didn't even have to look at my pay stubs to know what to write down in my bank book after a few weeks because I had it memorized. Coming back in Spring 2011, we began getting paid $378.87 every two weeks, almost $15 lower than before. Irritated, I found that in comparing pay stubs from the two different semesters, the only thing that had changed was that Kansas's state taxes for us GTAs had tripled. Yes, tripled, at the start of 2011. Yet, obviously, our teaching stipends had not gone up to make up the balance -- we were being paid the same and were being taxed more on top of it. Doing the math here, this means that about 20% (roughly) of our income goes directly into state and federal taxes. I'm not sure what the income tax rate for everyone else is, but when we get paid obscenely low amounts of money per year, that's almost like an extra punch to the gut.

It's even worse when you think about the fact that, if the governor has his way, none of that tax money will go back into programs that support the very things we all do for a living -- writing, painting, bettering the arts community, etc.

We do make abysmally low stipends, too. Yes, we get free tuition as well, but our stipends are half, or even a third of what one would receive were one to become a GTA and get the same degree outside the state of Kansas. It's ludicrous. As you know, I have to get a student loan every year, if not more than one, just to be able to survive -- and I am not the only one. I'm just one of the very few with no backup plan (read: inheritances, trust funds, rich husband/wife/parents) to fall back on. That in itself is disheartening, as well, but as you know I've always taken pride in working hard and fighting for everything I have, even if what I have isn't a lot.

Interesting side note: before the neo-conservatives and Jesus took over the Republican party (so, well, before 9/11) I was relatively Republican in my viewpoints for the most part. Though I really did love Bill Clinton, perhaps because of the fact that he was getting blown in the oval office on a frequent basis.

Plus. Monica Lewinsky was hot. So hot. I will defend that opinion until I die.

Anyway, go figure.

Who knows if the tax rates for us will go up or down for 2012; none of us GTAs will know until we get our first paycheck of the spring semester (in February) and see if the amount on it is any different than the usual. What I do know, however, is that I got my Kansas state tax forms in the mail a few days ago, so as soon as I get my W-2 forms (or equivalents) I can do my taxes and be done with them. This is good as I just want to be done with them, get my refunds, and get the car worked on/fixed up/new tires.