Joe Neguse

Regent candidate Joe Neguse is going into Saturday’s 2nd Congressional District Assembly extremely confident that he will be a good spokesperson for higher education funding if elected.

“I’m going to work tirelessly as I did in 2005 to convince voters that higher education is worth investing in,” said Neguse. “Without a reliable public stream of revenue, CU is going to be very hard-pressed to be the stellar academic institution that we all want it to be.”

Neguse has bachelor’s degrees from CU in Economics and Political Science, and he is currently seeking a degree in the CU School of Law. He served as a Tri-Executive/Student Body President as an undergrad, and he worked on the successful 2005 campaign for Ref. C – a five-year Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) “time-out” that allowed the state government to keep billions of dollars of revenue.

Neguse said he has spent a great deal of time during the campaign traveling the 10-county 2nd CD, talking to potential voters and gathering input about what the people want. He said people have told him they want a regent who will work hard on their behalf, and they want affordability and accountability out of the university.

“They want CU to return to its rightful place as the people’s university – a university that serves the people of our state – and they want to make sure their kids can get a great college education at an affordable price,” said Neguse. “It’s something I’m certainly passionate about.”

Neguse has worked at the State Capitol for House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder, and Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver. He said the 2008 Legislature made some “valiant efforts” in the quest for adequate higher education funding, and said he anticipates campaigning for several state initiatives that might impact funding, although they’re not officially on the ballot yet.

For example, he spoke highly of Gov. Bill Ritter’s proposal to increase severance taxes, or taxes on extraction of oil, gas or minerals. A significant portion of the severance tax money would go towards higher education scholarships, and Neguse said the money would do “wonders” for the institutions and students.

“If we really want to talk affordability, it will truly make CU and other institutions more affordable,” said Neguse. “We’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars in scholarship money that will go directly to students.”

He also praised Romanoff’s proposal to refer a measure to voters that, if adopted, would remove TABOR refund requirements after Ref. C sunsets. It would also remove mandated inflationary K-12 spending increases found in the 2002 state Amendment 23, and put the would-be TABOR refunds in a state education fund.

Neguse said TABOR has been a “thorn in the side” of higher ed funding for quite some time. He said the state supplied about 25 percent of CU’s funding in 1992 when voters approved TABOR, but said the percentage has taken a “precipitous drop” since then.

Romanoff pulled the measure off the table after finding that he probably didn’t have enough votes in the Legislature, but voters could see a similar citizen initiative in 2008 – and Neguse said he’ll be out supporting it as he did in 2005.

“I’ll be trying to convince voters that TABOR reform is worth fighting for, and it’s certainly something I agree with,” said Neguse. “I don’t think it’s a hard sell, and I don’t think CU is a hard sell, but we need more salesmen and saleswomen.”

He also said it will be essential to build a “really large coalition” of people who share the common goals of ensuring adequate higher ed funding and making sure that the state’s flagship university is affordable for young adults with modest means.

“I think and hope that the message is resonating with folks, particularly given my background as a first-generation American, the son of immigrants who came to this country with very little,” said Neguse. “They were able to pull themselves up by the bootstraps, partially because of the opportunities that higher education provides.”