Following up on yesterday's message, I want to thank those of you who have contacted me to convey support for ASU and to offer suggestions. I appreciate the manner in which our university community has come together during this challenging time and I'm thankful for the collective effort that's been put forth to make sure that the needs of our students remain our highest priority.
Wednesday's announcement of a furlough program has generated some questions and your dean or supervisor can help to provide clarification. You can obtain additional information by contacting the ASU Human Resources furlough guidelines web page or the Employee Assistance Office. As always, you are also welcome to contact me at president@asu.edu to get answers to your questions or concerns. I encourage you make use of every service that's here to help.
going the extra mile
According to the HR website, http://www.asu.edu/hr/furlough/FAQ_staff.html,
Q: "Can I voluntarily work in my current role while on furlough (or any other day)? "
A: "No, an employee cannot volunteer in their current role without being paid."
(yet, no references to policy or law have been provided to suport this answer.)
I can understand why such rules are in place, i.e. to protect workers from being coerced to work without pay under the guise of volunteerism. However, these are exceptional circumstances and you have called us to serve. Besides, I've been working beyond my scheduled work hours my entire career here, and I've lost hundreds of hours of vacation because I failed to take it; my fault entirely. Yet to date, no one has corrected my volunteering in my "current role without being paid". Aside from the reduction in payroll, how is a furlough any different from what most of us do every day?
So, I propose that a practical way be created to allow those who wish to match the university's contribution to the state budget by working some or all of their fulough days. This would send a positive message of hope to Arizona, provide a way employees can "go the extra mile" for the state and help position the university to be stronger at a time when we most need to be strong by reducing the impact of the furlough on operations. With appropriate safeguards to protect against abuse, it should be possible for those willing and able to volunteer a matching contribution to do so. To get the maximum benefit, the university would need to keep accurate records of such contributions and report them to the Legislature.
Given this, I further propose that the Legislature account for such contributions in its budget process, offsetting proposed cuts to education in some way that recognizes the value of employee efforts to help the state during these exceptional times.
Potentially, if all employees voluntarily worked all their furlough days, the effective value of those contributions would be another $24 million.
If our example inspired other agencies to do the same, the cumulative value, both economically and in the minds of the people of our state, could be what makes the difference for Arizona.
How to increase revenue for education at no cost to the state
See Line 41 of the Arizona Tax Form 140, the Aid to Education Fund, which is structured differently from all other voluntary contributions.
Aid to Education requires donors to give their ENTIRE REFUND, while all the other funds allow anyone to donate any amount greater than or equal to $1. If you owe a payment, you may NOT donate to Aid to Education, but you may donate to any other voluntary fund.
See the description in the instruction book:
“Line 41 - Aid To Education Fund
Gifts go to the Arizona Assistance for Education Fund. The Arizona Board of Education will distribute money in this fund to school districts. CAUTION: If you make a contribution to this fund, you must contribute your entire refund. You may not give more than or less than your entire refund.”
All the other funds have language to this effect:
“You may give some or all of your refund to the X fund. You may also give more than your entire refund.”
As a result, over the past 5 years, Aid to Education is next to lowest in revenue per year, not enough to pay even one teacher salary/benefit package.
FUND 5 yr Average
Clean Elections $5,309,380
Wildlife $208,852
Domestic Violence Shelter $169,151
Special Olympics $95,843
Aid to Education $54,444
Neighbors Helping Neighbors $48,023
In the legislative record, there is NO DISCUSSION of Aid to Education associated with the bill that enacted it. See Ways & Means, Chapter 286, Bill 1253, Section 10 for history of this provision.
Making Aid to Education the same as all the other voluntary contributions would increase contributions because
1) few taxpayers are willing/able to donate their entire refund,
2) MANY more people would donate a small amount and
3) at least some of those who owe a payment, who currently may not contribute, would likely do so.
Why is this fund structured differently from all the others?
Who benefits from this unique structure?
references:
Arizona Form 140 Instructions
http://www.azdor.gov/Forms/2008/individual/individual%20instructions/140...
Arizona Department of Revenue 2008 Annual Report
http://www.azdor.gov/Annualreports/2008/FY08%20Annual%20Report_web.pdf
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