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WEDNESDAY
nov. 29, 2017 high 45°, low 24°
t h e i n de p e n de n t s t u de n t n e w s pa p e r of s y r a c u s e , n e w yor k |
N • Jail unification
P • Bridging history
Onondaga County residents voted earlier this month to unify jails, consolidating operations of the county justice center and Jamesville Correctional Center. Page 3
The Onondaga Historical Association’s new leadership uses storytelling approaches that grow the museum’s reach outside its four walls. Page 9
state
Medical deduction threatened Tax plan could affect older New York residents
dailyorange.com
S • Demerits
The Daily Orange football beat writers grade SU football, evaluate position groups and give season superlatives after the Orange limped to a 4-8 finish. Page 16
national
AT RISK
Students rush to unionize
4 SU peer institutions could be hit with a contentious endowment tax
Trump appointments concern some grad students By Casey Darnell staff writer
By Madeleine Davison staff writer
Daina Stock has rheumatoid arthritis in every joint in her body. Her son has Asperger syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum, she said. And her husband has acute intermittent porphyria, a rare metabolic disorder that sometimes keeps him in the hospital for days at a time, Stock added. Due to these complex and ongoing health needs, Stock, 41, said her family’s medical expenses amounted to about $18,000 out of pocket last year. Stock — who lives in Manlius — is just one of the nearly 500,000 New York state residents who benefit from the medical expenses tax deduction each year, said Joe Stelling, associate state director of AARP New York, an organization that advocates for older adults. This deduction allows people to write-off medical expenses that exceed 10 percent of their annual income on their tax returns. But the tax bill that passed the Republican-controlled United States House of Representatives on Nov. 16 would eliminate this deduction. “I was nauseous,” Stock said of her reaction when she heard about the House tax bill. “I think anybody in that situation would be.” Many activists say removing the medical expenses deduction would hurt middle- and low-income older adults and people such as Stock and her family who have chronic health needs. “I’ve been getting a lot of calls from our members who are really concerned about (the tax bill) and the medical expense deduction is something that they automatically know is going to hit our membership in a big way,” Stelling said. Of the 8.8 million Americans who used the medical expenses deduction in 2015, 49 percent had incomes of less than $50,000 per year, according to AARP. People who use the medical expenses deduction tend to have lower incomes than those who claim other common deductions. Only 19 percent of people who used the charitable contributions deduction and 17 percent who claimed the mortgage home interest deduction had incomes less than $50,000 annually. The House bill plans to preserve both of those deductions. Low-income older adults and other marginalized populations have the most to lose if the deduction is cut from the tax code, said Jennifer Goldberg, directing attorney at see tax
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6 Affected by proposed Yes excise tax?
8 No
1. Boston College, $2.4 billion 2. Cornell University, $6.8 billion 3. Georgetown University, $1.5 billion* 4. Lehigh University, $1.3 billion* 5. Northwestern University, $9.8 billion* 6. Southern Methodist University, $1.5 billion* 7. Syracuse University, $1.25 billion 8. Tulane University, $1.3 billion 9. University of Notre Dame, $11.8 billion 10. University of Rochester, $2.35 billion* 11. Vanderbilt University, $3.8 billion * Approximate endowment provided by the respective university By Sam Ogozalek asst. news editor
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yracuse University’s endowment would have to increase by more than $4.3 billion before an excise tax proposed by Republican congressional leaders could hit the university as part of a contentious tax reform plan. The GOP’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, criticized by Democrats and liberal groups for disproportionately benefiting wealthy Americans, would include a possible 1.4 percent excise tax on major private university endowments. Passed by the House of Representatives earlier this month, the plan would impose the new tax on universities with an endowment
GOP tax legislation
Nov. 4 In a statement, Cornell University President Martha Pollack slams the excise tax
Nov. 2 GOP congressional leaders unveil the text of a sprawling tax plan that would include a contentious excise tax on major college endowments
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Range of SU peer institutions affected by the proposed excise tax
Proposed excise tax on major college endowments
of $250,000 or more per full-time student, a figure calculated by dividing a university’s total endowment by its full-time student population. As of Oct. 31, SU’s endowment was $1.3 billion, a university spokeswoman said in an email. The endowment is a pool of money collected from donors that’s invested in the stock market. Endowments can help colleges fund scholarships, faculty salaries and academic programs, among other things. Currently, full-time students at SU are worth about $57,817 each, in terms of endowment money. In turn, the university would need an endowment of just over $5.6 billion for the proposed excise tax to theoretically take effect.
see endowment page 6
Nov. 7 Higher education leaders continue to condemn the excise tax
Nov. 20 President Donald Trump, in a Cabinet meeting, says the tax plan will be signed into law by Christmas
Nov. 16 Nov. 6 The House approves its version The plan is amended so of the plan, shifting national universities with an endowment attention to the Senate of $250,000 or more per fulltime student are subject to the graphic illustration by excise tax lucy naland presentation director
Graduate student unionization efforts at Syracuse University, its peer institutions and other private colleges have become urgent following President Donald Trump’s election last year. A 2016 decision from the National Labor Relations Board, an agency that enforces federal labor laws, allowed graduate students at private universities to unionize. Graduate students at several universities, though, have said they believe their right to unionize is at risk after Trump appointed two Republicans to the board, creating a conservative majority.
Our own administration has shown time and time again that they don’t value the work we do, and the only way to defend ourselves is collective action. Emily Bukowski sgeu union member
Syracuse Graduate Employees United is the only graduate student union at SU. It has spent the past two years “under the radar,” but that’s about to change, said SGEU member Brian Hennigan, in an email. At a rally outside Hendricks Chapel on Wednesday, SGEU will protest the House Republican tax plan, which would raise taxes for graduate students by thousands of dollars. The rally will also be used to announce SGEU’s affiliation with Service Employees International Union, a large labor union that is working with graduate student unions at Duke University and Emory University, Hennigan said. “Our own administration has shown time and time again that they don’t value the work we do, and the only way to defend ourselves is collective action,” said Emily Bukowski, an SGEU union member, in an email. In 2015, health insurance was the main motivation for the union’s formation after SU announced it would switch graduate student employees from the employee health insurance plan to the student health insurance see students page 6