EC / K-12 NEWS

• EC/K-12 Council meeting at CFT convention: reports
• Early Childhood Organizing Project in Pre-K Advocacy Day
• Organizing victory for N. CA early childhood educators
• "No Child Left Behind" reauthorization info
• CFT participates in Ed Source "Convening" October 19
• "No public education by corporation," by George Martinez
• New research supports investing in effective pre-K
• "No Time to Quit," by Miles Myers
• CFT Position Paper on Charter Schools (pdf)
• What CFT members can do about the state budget crisis

CFT president Marty Hittelman spoke at an Education Coalition press conference at the state Capitol on Friday, August 15 against any further cuts in the state budget, and called instead for closing tax loopholes, implementing a tax on oil when it is taken out of the ground, and increased rates for people with the highest incomes. Kara Buchanan, photo

Background of the budget gap
The news is bad for the state budget...again. In response to a projected deficit of 17 billion dollars, the governor has proposed mostly cuts to vital services, with the only new revenues consisting of a regressive sales tax and borrowing schemes. The Republicans are abdicating all real world responsibility as legislators, refusing to consider any taxes at all. The Senate Democrats have essentially caved in to the governor's proposal. Only the Assembly Democrats have offered a reasonable revenue proposal, which includes returning income tax rates on the very wealthiest Californians ($300,000 per year income and up) to the rates they paid in the 1990s, which would raise six billion dollars. The CFT is working with the Education Coalition to raise public awareness of the devastating impact the cuts would have on the quality of education in California.

But the problem is deeper than just this year. We have a structural gap in the California state budget, varying year by year, but running in the billions of dollars.

Solving the budget gap in California requires a reasonable solution—one that the governor is pointedly ignoring, along with his role in creating the problem. This is a large state, with the largest population in the United States, and an economy that, if it were a country's, would be the sixth or seventh largest in the world. The budget problem can't be solved by cuts alone, because state program reductions of such a magnitude hurt the people most who can least afford them. Indeed, such cuts threaten the future well-being of California.

We need instead to increase state revenues with carefully considered tax increases, especially closing tax loopholes for those who can most afford to pay: the wealthy and large corporations. Taking these actions will allow us to fund the social programs we need.

Mostly undiscussed, but crucial to understanding California's problem, is that the state legislature, to get a recalcitrant minority of anti-tax legislators to pass state budgets, gave up taxes on the top brackets and the much-maligned vehicle license fee (VLF) during the height of the dot-com bubble. Each year since 1991, the state budget's ability to generate revenue has been compromised by rescinding one or more taxes. This meant the accumulated loss of many billions of dollars in revenue, contributing greatly to the current deficit.

Indeed, the VLF alone was worth $4 billion per year when Schwarzenegger, to great applause by the legislative Republicans, eliminated it. The VLF today is estimated to be worth close to $6 billion. Add up the loss of that amount each year since Schwarzenegger's election, and you have the budget deficit. But Schwarzenegger is clinging to the position that he will not raise taxes. (Technically, the VLF is a fee; but since he called it "the Gray Davis car tax" throughout his recall campaign, that's what it remains in the public mind.)

Public services in general, and public education in particular, have been underfunded in California since 1978 and the enactment of Proposition 13. This law substantially shifted the burden of funding many locally delivered services to the state, without providing appropriate mechanisms to pay for them. Increased spending on education in the late 1990s and into 2001 was finally beginning to address years of neglect. Now the gains of these years have been reversed. Per pupil funding in California now ranks 45th in the nation.

What to do about it: Progressive Taxation
The revenue options below would raise an estimated $16 billion per year, essentially solving the state's structural budget problem:

• Reinstate the vehicle license fee ($6 billion per year)
• Bring the top income tax bracket (people who make more than $300,000) back from 9.3% to 11% ($5 billion)
• Re-assess non-residential real property ($3 billion per year)
• Limit mortgage interest deductions to $50,000 in interest ($47 million per year)
• Require that large corporations file as corporations, not “S” type partnerships ($500 to 600 million per year)
• Enact severance tax on oil produced in California ($1.5 billion per year with oil at $100 a barrel)
• Close tax loophole for luxury boats and planes exchanged in Mexico ($26 million)
• Extend sales tax to Internet purchases ($20 million)

These are each worthy proposals. But the real problem that needs to be addressed to solve California's budget problems is Proposition 13. It builds in inequities between residential and commercial taxation, and, depending on when a homeowner buys a house, inequities among homeowners as well. Reform of Proposition 13, which locks in a broken budget system, is an urgent priority.

Convince legislators and the governor
The problem with these ideas is that in California, any tax increase must be approved by a supermajority of 2/3 in the state legislature. California is one of just three states that require more than a simple majority to raise taxes. Each year a small minority of legislators, opposed to tax increases on ideological grounds, can block the will of the majority and prevent a balanced approach to solving the budget crisis. That's what happens every year, including last year, once again. Legislators should be able to enact a necessary tax increase with a simple majority instead of wrangling endlessly with hard core anti-tax ideologues.

Over time we must convince our legislators and the governor that only progressive tax reform can solve the long-term crisis. The problem isn't "overspending." This is a simplistic analysis of a complex problem. California is a big and growing state, and needs big revenues to function.

We are currently witnessing the return of the Gilded Age, in which the wealthiest among us continue to increase their riches at the expense of the rest of us. Currently the top one percent of wealth holders in the United States owns one third of the assets of the country. The top ten percent owns 70% of the wealth. That leaves the bottom ninety percent of wealth holders–the overwhelming majority–with less than a third of the country's wealth.

Don't let people tell you that "we don't have the money" for a decent public education system. The money's there. It's just in the wrong pockets.

Other Resources on the State Budget Crisis

• Education Coalition
• California Budget Project
• California Tax Reform Association
• Strategy for Effective Communication With Your Elected Officials (4K pdf flyer)
• "How many dollars at the top?," Too Much, April 24, 2006

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