UC Berkeley students lobby in Sacramento for bill to tax oil to fund public higher education

A group of UC Berkeley students joined forces with supporters from various California colleges and universities Thursday morning to lobby for a state Senate bill that aims to reduce tuition at California public institutions of higher education.

About 20 UC Berkeley students were among the 70 supporters who went to Sacramento to bequest members of the Senate Education Committee to support  Senate Bill 1017, which would impose a tax on oil and gas extracted from California soil. The revenue from the tax would be funneled into an endowment — established by the bill — that would generate funds for California public higher education. The proposal ultimately aims to stabilize tuition and roll costs back to 2008 levels.

“We all teamed up and went into the meeting, where we pretty much lobbied,” said UC Berkeley junior Elias Saigali. “I think it was very effective.”

Those who attended the Senate hearing had the opportunity to vocalize through testimony either their support of or opposition to the bill. According to Saigali, about 60 people spoke in favor of the bill — including students and supporters from the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, a grassroots organization that aims to empower ordinary citizens to take action in their communities.

“Our physical persistence showed that students really care,” Saigali said. “It’s a way for them to understand what we’re going through. It’s important to us.”

Also at the hearing, representatives from the Western States Petroleum Association enumerated their qualms. Particularly, they argued that the legislation would cost the oil industry about 10,000 jobs and would raise gas prices.

SB 1017, which was introduced two months ago by State Senator Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, has long been supported by a coalition of UC Berkeley students. The bill is a development of both Senate Bill 241 — a former iteration of SB 1017 that failed to pass in committee last year — and the California Modernization and Economic Development Act. Authored by UC Berkeley senior Harrison “Jack” Tibbetts, CMED is of similar sentiment to SB 1017 and, in fact, inspired the bill’s provision of an endowment fund.

In a February interview, Tibbetts said SB 1017 could generate upward of $5 billion for higher-education funding in California. He added that California is the only major oil-producing state that doesn’t impose a tax on extracted oil.

On Thursday, SB 1017 passed the preliminary vote in the Senate Education Committee. As a result of this, the state Senate Governance and Finance Committee will review the bill May 9.

“My hope is that if this does pass, it will inspire students to take legislation into their own hands,” Tibbetts said. “There is more to being reactionary. You can actually lead the discussion.”

 via: http://www.dailycal.org/2014/04/24/uc-berkeley-students-lobby-sacramento-bill-tax-oil-fund-public-higher-education/

Senate passes measure asking voters to repeal Prop. 209

Democrats in the California Senate used their two-thirds supermajority Thursday to pass a measure that would ask voters if they want to repeal the state's ban on race- and gender-based preferences in government hiring and contracting and university admissions.

With the bare minimum number of votes needed - 27 - the upper house passed and sent to the Assembly Senate Constitutional Amendment 5, which would ask voters if they want to repeal provisions that became law 18 years ago with the passage of Proposition 209.

The measure by Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, prompted lively debate between Democrats and Republicans on the Senate floor. Democrats argued that California's preferences ban has hampered opportunities for Latino and African Americans in the state to get into college and ultimately achieve economic mobility. Republicans argued that the way to make college attainable for more students of color is to improve the K-12 schools in their communities.

"Why aren't we challenging the education system in California, which in many cases is doing a terrible job," said Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, adding that charter schools and vouchers would allow parents more choices.

Sen. Kevin de León, the Los Angeles Democrat who is in line to become the next President Pro Tem of the Senate, countered that California's earlier use of preferences advanced his opportunities in life.

"If it weren't for affirmative action, I,Kevin de León, wouldn't be here today," he said.


PHOTO: Senator Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina during session in the Senate chambers in Sacramento, Calif. on Monday, March 11, 2013. The Sacramento Bee/Hector Amezcua.

via: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/01/senate-passes-measure-asking-voters-to-repeal-prop-209.html

California GOP sees role to protect education funds

What's a marginalized minority party to do?

It's a key question for Republican lawmakers staring down a newly enshrined Democratic supermajority. Part of the answer so far seems to be a renewed emphasis on higher education.

Both Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres, and Assemblyman Jeff Gorell, R-Camarillo, have introduced a pair of bills that would freeze tuition at the University of California andCalifornia State University for the seven-year duration of the higher tax rates mandated by Proposition 30.

Since voters approved the tax measure last fall, the authors say they have a role to play in ensuring that an influx of new money from Proposition 30 is exclusively used for education. They say failing to do so would betray voters to whom the initiative was sold as a vehicle for averting more education cuts.

"A lot of people made a lot of implied promises to college students that everything would be OK if Prop. 30 passes," Cannella said. "If anyone thinks the state of California will just keep that money in a bank account," he added, "it's just not going to happen."

Democrats are more skeptical of Republican lawmakers' motives, given that they resisted putting such a measure on the ballot in the first place. Had it failed to pass, resulting cuts in higher education would likely have spurred a tuition hike.

"They're in a situation where they have been fundamentally irrelevant to most of the public policy discussions in Sacramento for quite a while now, and their first step to have some credibility is to say something in the public policy debate," said Democratic strategist Bill Carrick. "So what they've done, obviously, is say, well, people care about education, let's get out front on this."

The fact that Republicans went from opposing Proposition 30 to casting themselves as responsible stewards of the money it raised is a move born more of expedience than of principle, said Steve Maviglio, a Sacramento political consultant who worked for two Democratic Assembly speakers. He called the emphasis on higher education "a post-election gimmick."

"It's like they woke up the day after the election and decided they have a commitment to education," he said.

The focus on higher education was evident in GOP responses to Gov. Jerry Brown's budget proposal last month, which Brown trumpeted as a testament to the new-found fiscal stability Proposition 30 is set to provide.

While many Republican lawmakers praised Brown's budget, they also exhorted Brown and Democrats to ensure that the influx of new funding goes to schools.

In a written response to the budget, Republican Connie Conway, R-Tulare, called the tuition freeze bills an effort to "ensure that this revenue goes to boost higher education funding and prevent tuition and fee increases at our public colleges and universities, just as the voters intended."

In a follow-up interview, Conway affirmed that "we see our role as a watchdog."

"I believe that promises made should be promises kept, so if you're out there telling people 'if you vote for this to raise taxes then it's going to go to education,' then it should," Conway said.

Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Marysville, has also introduced a pair of higher education bills. They would create pilot programs enabling students to obtain a degree for $10,000 and $20,000, respectively, an effort to hold down ballooning tuition costs.

"We're pricing kids out of a good education, especially the middle class," Logue said.

Democrats campaigned heavily for Proposition 30 on college campuses, mobilizing student voters by saying the ballot measure would prevent a tuition hike.

Logue is also promoting his measures to the young voter bloc, which had some of the highest turnout rates of any age group in California during the November elections.

In a recent press release, he said students have "some of the most powerful voices when it comes to getting involved in government" and called his bills "the beginning of a revolution to the very pressing issue of the rising costs of education."

The 2012-13 budget promised the University of California and California State University $125 million each in 2013-14 if Proposition 30 passed, and the schools agreed to hold tuition steady for 2012-13. Dianne Klein, a spokeswoman for the University of California, said the funding levels in Brown's budget should be enough to prevent a tuition bump this year.

Pushing to ensure that remains the case is one way for Republicans to exert influence when they otherwise have little room to maneuver, said Aaron McLear, political consultant and former press secretary to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"They have limited leverage, no question about it," McLear said. "So I think they're using what power they have to try and effect change in the state instead of just curling up and moaning about being in the superminority."

Cannella did not publicly take a position on Proposition 30. But now that the voters have spoken, Cannella said, "the equation has changed." New revenues are coming, and that presents a chance for Republicans to make the most of their diminished status.

"On a political landscape in which support for education is measured predominantly by the amount of money you're willing to spend, Republicans don't get many opportunities to play the education issue to their advantage," said Dan Schnur, director of the University of Southern California's Unruh Institute of Politics. "By arguing about how the Prop. 30 money is going to be spent, they get a chance to look like the big guys."

via The Sacramento Bee

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/03/5161070/minority-california-republicans.html#storylink=cpy