People are like "why would these supposedly pro business Republicans be cutting funding for public universities that are huge economic growth engines" and like look at how the richest states vote and how the poorest states vote. If you were a Republican would you want your state to become wealthier?
Of course, Democrats in rich states have also by and large been cutting funding for public universities, though this is more a byproduct of the unwillingness to raise overall tax rates and seeing education $ in budgets as a prime source to divert to other priorities.
Reagan made raising taxes in any fashion a nonstarter, and the media was happy to play along. Even now, every story on the budget here in Illinois headlines how this is the biggest budget in our history and spinning closing some business tax loopholes as “tax increases on business.”
