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The State Budget Crisis and Us:
A personal rant
by Mona Field, Social Sciences Division
I am sure many of you share my
frustration with the state budget process. We get a few good years, then
major fiscal disasters. This year the state’s deficit has risen to a
current guesstimate of $16 billion (no one really knows the exact
number). This creates complete unpredictability for our state’s many
services, including our college (nearest and dearest to most of us), but
also including the CSUs, the UCs, the highways, the state parks, etc.
(Not to mention our rapidly growing state prison system, now using more
dollars per year than the entire higher education system of California!)
The bad news
began in January with the governor’s initial proposals. At that time,
the deficit was around $14 billion. His 10% across-the-board cutback
approach to every state service makes it pretty clear that Glendale
College (along with every other public educational institution) cannot
function at normal levels. (Unless, of course, employees, whose
salaries and benefits make up about 90% of the district budget, would
like to volunteer for pay cuts. Any takers? I didn’t think so.)
While the
governor originally proposed no fee increase for community college
students, the legislative analyst (LAO) followed by proposing fees be
raised to $26 per unit. It seems modest, perhaps, but community college
history shows that our enrollment declines when fees rise. Then we lose
state funds, and the vicious cycle begins.
To add to the
misery, property tax revenues are down, and community colleges are
heavily dependent on these dollars. As the legislature debates the
state’s budget, every Californian becomes a victim of the outmoded 2/3
requirement to pass a state budget—in effect, since all the Democrats
vote as a bloc, and Republicans initially vote as a “no tax increase”
bloc, then every year the budget battle revolves around wheedling,
squeezing, and pressuring the Republican caucus until eight of them cave
in and vote for the majority party’s heavily compromised state budget.
Even Gov
Arnold, a Republican, has come out in favor of closing some of the tax
loopholes that benefit a few. Closing some of those loopholes can help
prevent cuts in education and social services. But even
with the governor’s advocacy, legislative Republicans have voted to
prevent yachts and private airplanes from being properly taxed because
of lobbying by the yacht builders!
Is Glendale
College an institution which deserves to be held hostage to the
absurdity of trying to run the world’s 6th
largest economy without adequate revenues? Should our students suffer
class and service cutbacks because virtually all Republican legislators
ferociously oppose any “revenue enhancements,” i.e. tax increases? (I
know some of us are Republicans, and if you are, you must convince your
party leaders that California needs revenues, not just cuts.)
If any of the
current proposals actually are finalized (and Sacramento experts predict
a very late, perhaps September, final budget this year), GCC could go
into a serious cutback mode, including class cuts (and thus layoffs for
part-time faculty), possible classified layoffs, and the downward spiral
we have seen before in terms of morale, enrollment and college
resources.
REMINDER: DON’T SHOOT THE MESSENGER!
These are dire
possibilities and no one will want to read them.
Personally,
I’m just sick of it. Every year that our state’s economy slows, tax
collections drop (80% of the state’s budget is based on personal income
and sales taxes). Then we hear “cut”
and “more cuts” from Sacramento. Fundamental changes in our budget
process and our revenue system are required to make California a
world-class state.
Are we going
to continue our movement to become “Califissippi”? Are we going to let
California move down in its already abysmal ranking in terms of funding
for public education? (We are currently about 43rd
in the nation, just a little above Mississippi in how much of our
collective wealth we commit to public education.)
For specific
revenue sources that our union, the California Federation of Teachers,
proposes as ways to prevent the further deterioration of public
education, please see Gordon’s Guild column or go to www.cft.org/councils/ec/news/budget_crisis.html
Will Governor
Arnold become the statesman that his Republican predecessors, governors
Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson, became when faced with similar budget
crises? Will he have the guts and the political muscle to arm-twist his
Republican colleagues in the legislature to close the loopholes, raise
appropriate taxes, and keep California strong?
Stay tuned—or
rather, keep reading. This is the kind of news that
won’t
be on your television.
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