Businesses rally around OTC tax levy

Towery is president of Steelman Transportation trucking firm, chairman of the Springfield Area Motor Carriers Association and a member of the Committee for Workforce Investment, a group of businesspeople actively campaigning for the levy increase on the Nov. 6 ballot. He’s also a huge proponent of OTC, which opened its Transportation Training Institute in February to meet the regional need for qualified truck drivers.

Within six months of approaching OTC President Hal Higdon about the need for a truck-driving school, the institute began teaching its first class, Towery said.

“I think that is so responsive on the part of educators to listen to industry and see what we need,” he added.

Larry Snyder, president of construction firm Larry Snyder & Co., organized the Committee for Workforce Investment and recruited its seven other members. The group has raised about $26,000, acording to committee treasurer Joe Tucker, enough to pay for three direct-mail pieces that focus on allied health, technical training and workforce development – the three programs targeted for expansion with revenue from the proposed 12-cent levy increase. The group is still raising funds and hopes to collect $30,000–$35,000.

The increase would be phased in at 4 cents a year for three years, raising the levy from its current 14 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to 26 cents per $100 assessed valuation in 2010. After the third and final increase, additional property tax on a $100,000 home would amount to $22.80 per year, according to the committee’s Web site, www.committeeforworkforceinvestment.com.

The committee is highlighting the contrast between the local tax levy – the lowest of 12 community colleges in Missouri – and the school’s tuition, which is the highest in the state at $95 per credit hour.

“We’re riding the students,” Snyder said.

Towery noted that the disparity is even greater when OTC is compared to similar community colleges outside the Show-Me State.

“It’s almost an embarrassment in terms of the support levels that you find outside of this state. … We spend a pittance on this,” he said.

OTC President Higdon said the school’s funding formula, which he describes as a “very unhealthy model,” struck him as a major challenge when he interviewed for the top administrative post in early 2006.

The largest portion of the school’s 2007-08 budget – 45 percent – is funded through tuition, Higdon said. Another 21 percent is state funding, and 14 percent – or about $6.5 million – comes from the local tax levy. State and federal grants account for the difference. Ideally, Higdon said, a third of school funding would come from the state, a third from tuition and a third from the local tax levy.

Higdon said he’s concerned that the school’s relatively high tuition rates are preventing would-be students from enrolling. About 40 percent of OTC’s 10,247 students aren’t eligible for Pell grants, he noted.

“Frankly, we’re to the point where we can’t raise tuition much more without really hurting our students,” Higdon said. “Our students are not the wealthiest students in southwest Missouri. It’s the middle class. … I think what happens is they don’t go to school at all.”

That concerns Snyder, Towery and other proponents of the tax levy increase. Nurses, truck drivers, diesel technicians and heavy equipment operators are good-paying jobs that have the potential to grow the regional economy, Towery said.

“If (the levy increase is) passed, it will accelerate our entire community development,” he said. “It’s going to accelerate the growth of jobs. It’s going to accelerate the rate of pay. … It’s an upward spiral rather than a downward spiral.”

Towery acknowledged that a certain segment votes against taxes regardless of the benefit, but he thinks most businesspeople understand the value of a trained work force and will support the levy increase. Higdon, though, said he’s cognizant of the fact that widespread community support for OTC doesn’t necessarily translate at the polls.

“Just because they think you’re doing a good job doesn’t mean they’re going to vote for taxes,” he said. “We’ve been around 17 years, and when you’re young, you’ve got to prove yourself.”

Committee members, however, wonder how much more proof is needed.

“The school should speak for itself,” Snyder said. “It’s doing a heck of a job in a community that needs the training. Every time a new industry talks about coming to town, the industry asks the chamber to bring someone from OTC with them to tell them what they can do about training their work force.”

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