College groups taking protest to Romney's house

More than two dozen higher-education activists, students, and staff plan to march to Governor Mitt Romney's Belmont home this morning, demanding pay raises, increased funding for schools, and tuition cuts.

"He wants to attract high-tech and bio-tech to Massachusetts and yet he's under-funding the higher education in Massachusetts that would attract these companies," said Professor Richard Eells, president of the Roxbury Community College chapter of the Massachusetts Community College Council.

The protest was organized by the council and the college's chapter of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees after Romney vetoed $32 million in funding from the supplemental budget in September. The funding was set aside for retroactive pay raises promised to the unions.

"Our contract was not fulfilled," said Laverne Banks, the chief steward for the college's AFSCME chapter. "It's affecting us monetarily in terms of putting food on the table and clothes on our children's backs while prices are going up and up."

When the veto was announced in September, Romney said: "I know there will be people who will say, 'But we had a contract that told us we should be paid at a higher level' . . . but we've all been around this state a long time and we recognize that contracts are subject to appropriation, and the Legislature did not appropriate the funds in the relevant years."

The groups plan to march from the Arlington Heights water tower to the Romney home at 11:30, where they will picket and make speeches, Eells said.

"Of all the line items in the budget, he chose to veto one for college employees, janitors, secretaries, and faculty," said Eells. "He made it personal, so we decided to take it to his house."

Yesterday, the governor's spokeswoman, Shawn Feddeman, said Romney will not be at home during the time of the protest. Instead, she said he'll be spending the day with his family at an undisclosed location.

"It's the union activists' job to advocate for higher salaries for employees; it's the governor's job to protect the interests of taxpayers," said Feddeman. She said the governor signed $100 million in funding that amounted to a 15 percent pay raise for the employees earlier this year.

"The governor's priority is to invest in our higher education in a way that would help students through the Adams Scholarship, ensure we have top-notch facilities with $20 million to upgrade facilities, and reduce waiting lists for adult education with $19.5 million in funding," she said. "The Legislature rejected these proposals."

Eells said the group will march whether Romney is home or not. In addition to demanding the retroactive pay, they will also be marching to restore $300 million in funding cut from public higher education since 2001 and to reduce tuition and fees by 50 percent, he said.

"We're addressing the issue of making public higher education affordable again," he said. "It started before he was in office, but he hasn't reversed it and it's continued to slide."