Stop Tuition Hikes, an organization advocating for a ballot initiative to reduce public college tuition, is shutting down operations after failing to gain much momentum.
The group was formed in the summer of 2015. They were pushing a ballot measure that would add a $1.50 tax to the cigarette tax and use those funds to supplement college tuition. To get on the ballot, the group would have needed nearly 50,000 signatures and to date only received 4,000.
The group lays blame for the lack of interest on politics in the Statehouse, and a separate initiative from the Governor's office. Bill Moran, spokesman for Stop Tuition Hikes, said Gov. C. L. "Butch" Otter's PCAP proposal takes $10 million in cigarette tax revenues, making it difficult to collect money for tuition support.
"PCAP is God awful policy," writes Moran. "It gives people, on an opt-in basis (see extra bureaucracy) the privilege of going to a primary care doctor or dentist (see money give away) to be diagnosed with a condition that there is no subsequent funding to treat. When people talk about nexus between cigarette tax revenues and smoking, that is what they are talking about -- a nexus into a well lobbied interest group which these kids are not."
The release finishes saying unless there is an outpouring of monetary support, the group will shut down this Sunday.
