A state senator charged Monday that hiring a political war-horse to make permanent the tax surcharge was wasting money, but NIU disagrees.

“I think it’s unnecessary,” said Sen. Patrick Welch, D-Peru. “I won’t say the first word that comes to mind. But it’s gobbledygook.”

Welch was blasting NIU’s decision to pay former Republican legislator Gene Hoffman $66,000 for outreach and development work in the northwest suburbs while spearheading the push to make permanent the state’s income tax surcharge set to expire June 30.

But NIU President John La Tourette said hiring Hoffman, a 24-year veteran of the House of Representatives, was needed because the surcharge simply offers NIU and all of education too much money to be taken lightly.

The temporary surcharge is set to expire June 30 and brings about $112 million to education. NIU takes home about $6.4 million.

“I wish we could assume that the surcharge would be made permanent,” La Tourette said. “But I know this is going to be subject to the political process and the difference between having that surcharge continued and not having it is an absolute disaster.”

But Welch is as upset with Hoffman’s hiring as he is with the way he found out about it. He said he heard of the move through the usual way—by the newspaper and not from NIU officials. Welch said NIU rarely calls him to tell him what is going on.

“I’m at the point now where I’m not the least bit surprised,” Welch said about being in the dark when it comes to NIU.

La Tourette said he intended to tell Welch but was unable to because of time constraints.

Still, Welch disagrees with the move.

“It seems to me to pay somebody $66,000 a year and to create a position at the same time you’re complaining you don’t have enough money from the state, is sending a contradictory signal to the legislature,” he said.

NIU contends Hoffman’s experience in education and 24 years in the legislature make him a prime candidate to help NIU’s outreach efforts. And Hoffman’s surcharge work benefits NIU and the state.

But Welch disagrees. Strongly.

“There’s no reason we need a separate individual coordinating the surcharge,” Welch said. “He is not going to add one iota of clout. Not one vote. It’s a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

But getting votes is “not the objective,” La Tourette said. Hoffman “is not a lobbyist.”

Even so, Welch said Hoffman doing the job is a bad choice because one of the big reasons Hoffman lost his representative seat last November is because he supported the surcharge. Now, Welch contends, when Hoffman goes to lobby for the surcharge, his mere presence will remind everyone why he is working outside of the state capitol instead of inside.

“His experience is he voted for the surcharge and was immediately defeated the next election,” Welch said.

“It seems to me that this is some sort of political arrangement for a legislator defeated in the last election,” Welch said.

La Tourette said Hoffman is a steal for all of education. NIU is picking up his salary, but other state schools are doing other work and giving money for different aspects of the surcharge push. When the surcharge began in 1988, La Tourette said almost $300,000 was spent by schools across the state in the effort.

And La Tourette is emphatic that Hoffman is not a lobbyist. He will be working with industry, business and government to “establish stronger working relations for NIU,” La Tourette said.

That will help expand NIU’s “base of interaction in the suburbs and bring us additional dollars” for research and public service, La Tourette said.