The following statement was issued Jan. 7 by the coalition that drafted
the initiative to extend Proposition 30, now under review by the Office
of the California Attorney General. Groups in the coalition include the
California Teachers Association, the California Federation of Teachers,
the Service Employees International Union and the California Hospital
Association.
The Governor’s proposed budget released today underscores the
critical need to build on the important milestones California has been
able to achieve due in part to Proposition 30. While California now
finds itself in more stable economic times, we cannot afford to go back
to imbalanced budgets and devastating cuts to education, healthcare
and other critical services.
The state budget plan released today shows that Proposition 30 has
worked and continues to work, helping balance our budget and
increasing funding for our public schools as well as vital services like
healthcare for poor children and seniors. During the last recession our
schools and colleges lost $50 billion in funding that will never be repaid
to our students. California continues to lag behind the majority of the
nation in per-pupil spending despite the fact that public school funding
is now back to where it was before the recession.
Most concerning, according to the budget released today, and the
Governor’s comments regarding an inevitable future economic
downturn, highlighted by the Governor’s own chart, are the budget
deficits California could face in future years. Without a Prop 30
extension, our students will lose once again and public schools will
potentially face $5 billion dollars in cuts annually beginning in 2019.
Temporarily extending the Prop 30 income tax rates on the wealthiest
Californians – those couples earning a half million dollars or more - will
ensure that essential funding goes to our public schools and services
like healthcare that benefit all Californians, including our students and
our most vulnerable populations.
An extension of these Prop 30 revenues is a critical component to
keeping our state on track and not letting us slide back into years of
deficits and cuts. We look forward to more conversations with the
Governor and are hopeful we can address his concerns.