BITTER RIVALS
TAILGATING SEASON Check out this week’s issue of the Verge for pre-
The Eastern football team squares off against Illinois State in the 102nd meeting of the Mid-America Classic. Page 8
views of this weekend’s upcoming events. Page 1B
Dai ly Eastern News
THE
WWW.DAILYEASTERNNEWS.COM
Friday, Sept. 13, 2013
VOL. 98 | ISSUE 20
“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID” Entertainment | DVORAK CONCER T HALL
STATE | FINANCE
Legislator advocates progressive income tax By Rachel Rodgers Special Projects Reporter @rj_rodgers The state of Illinois looks for revenue in all of the wrong places, preventing higher education from functioning properly, a state representative said Thursday. Addressing a crowd of about 50 professors, annuitants and community members, State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson promoted the adoption of a progressive income tax in Illinois, which would require an amendment to the state constitution. Illinois currently applies a flat tax where all income levels have an equal tax. A progressive tax proposes tax on income to be measured on a graduated rate, meaning lower rates would apply to lower income levels, and higher rates would apply to higher income levels. Jakobsson, representing the 103rd district encompassing Champaign and Urbana, argued that years of spending cuts to services, especially education, and the unfunded pension liability growing north of $95 billion calls for improvement in the state’s revenue system. “I think one of the solutions to this is not just passing some kind of a pension reform bill, but we need to look at our entire revenue situation in the state of Illinois because that’s our problem,” she said. “Our real problem is our revenue, or lack there of it, I should say.” Jakobsson introduced House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 33 with the goal of it passing in the General Assembly by Spring 2014 so it could be placed on the 2014 general election ballot. The proposal is currently in Rules Committee. Accompanying Jakobsson was Ralph Martire, the executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, who presented different data sets on state economic factors including Illinois budgeting, spending, borrowing and acquiring revenue. Martire said three key changes need to occur to repair the fiscal condition of Illinois: extinguishing the pension debt with periodical payments, bringing stability to the tax system by expanding the tax base to include consumer services and establishing a progressive income tax. “The bottom line here is clear; Illinois has a fiscal system that simply doesn’t work in a modern economy,” Martire said. “It is short-changing core services and frustrating the state’s ability to invest in really important things that do drive long-term economic growth like public education and infrastructure.” The University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100 sponsored the presentation, and Ann Fritz, the UPI president and a biological sciences professor, said lacking state support affects all citizens of Illinois, including students facing higher tuition and lower sources of funds and professors fighting to keep their pensions from being diminished.
TAX, page 5
Seth Schroeder | The Daily Eastern Ne ws
Musician Pokie LaFarge performs with his band Thursday at the Dvorak Concert Hall in the Doudna Fine Arts Center. LaFarge is originally from Bloomington but is currently based out of St. Louis.
Old style musician swings Dvorak away By Marcus Curtis Entertainment Editor @DEN_News
Multi-genre artist Pokey LaFarge rocked the Dvorak Concert Hall in the Doudna Fine Arts Center Thursday. The sight is a young man with his hair slicked back, draped in a well-tailored black suit, complimented with two-tone black and white colored dress shoes. That man is LaFarge. The wardrobe of the band members presented an old-fashioned style
that complimented the ragtime-styled music performed. There were four men and one young woman behind LaFarge on stage. The men in the band were dressed in old-style clothing that included fedoras, cowboy hats and suspenders. The young woman, Chloe Feoranzo, was adorned in a powder blue dress. LaFarge started his performance off with popular country and blues songs that instantly rowed the audience. He also showed off his personali-
ty with his jokes and interaction with the audience in the concert hall. One woman in attendance was celebrating her birthday, and Dwight Vaught, the director of the Doudna Fine Arts Center led members in the audience in a happy birthday sing along for her. Vaught said singing happy birthday to her would prep the audience’s vocals for the sing-alongs LaFarge would later encourage them to participate in. Every member of the band, including his original three band mates,
Ryan Koenig on harmonica, washboard and snare, Adam Hoskins on guitar and Joey Glynn on upright bass. Feoranzo on clarinet and TJ Muller on cornet were the two additions to the band. The six artists on stage energized the crowd with their solo performances throughout each of the songs. It was LaFarge’s original song, “Sweet Potato,” that got the best reaction from the crowd with the smooth bass sounds. The other crowd-popular songs inDVORAK, page 5
Council | Illinois board of higher education
Reps lobby for student map grants By Jarad Jarmon Student Governance Editor @JJarmonReporter The Illinois Board of Higher Education Student Advisory Council plans to confront climbing student debt, underfunded tax appropriations and pension reform over the course of the year. This council consists of student representatives from Eastern as well as other public and private schools within Illinois, who are planning to lobby for such things as Monetary Award Program grants and more school funding. A MAP grant is financial aid that does not need to be repaid for Illinois
college students who are financially in need. The representatives from each school meet every other month to go over issues involving higher education and plan what and when they will lobby for every other month a different university every month. Mitch Gurick, the student executive vice president, said the pension system reform is a big priority for IBHE-SAC, especially Eastern. The pension system is $83 billion in unfunded liability. “They need to come to some type of resolution with that because that is the worst in the nation right now,” Gurick said. Currently, Illinois Governor Pat
Quinn froze the salaries for the state representatives until they come to a resolution like passing the cost to the universities. Gurick attended the first IBHESAC meeting of the semester on Saturday. Gurick said he hopes at least 10 to 15 Student Senate members join him next time at the meeting. “It would be more effective,” Gurick said. “More people can be broken because the capitol is so large.” At the meeting, school representatives set dates that they will be lobbying. Each of the representatives were broken up into subcommittees They will be lobbying on behalf of
each college April 2. Eastern will be lobbying separate from IBHE-SAC on Oct. 25 or Nov. 1, but the date has not been set yet. Eastern plans to lobby for increased appropriations for higher education, MAP grants and funding for a new sciences building. Gurick said only 50 percent of those who are eligible for MAP grants receive them. “It is on a first come first serve basis,” Gurick said. Gurick said the sciences building is on the backburner in terms of importance compared to increased funding. Higher education appropriations have not increased since 2002. GRANTS, page 5