While Proposition 98 guarantees education funding for the state’s community colleges and K-12 schools, when revenues from local property taxes come up short, the colleges alone suddenly lose funding promised them.

This year CFT and other community college advocacy groups are lobbying hard and fast to make up the largest shortfall ever — a staggering $90 million already budgeted by districts. In previous years, the shortfall has ranged from $164,000 to $22.5 million.

If these funds aren’t replaced, districts will be forced to take an extremely “late-year” slice out of campus budgets, leaving students, districts, and unions facing serious reductions in services and the potential loss of part-time faculty and classified staff positions.

Securing the college funding already promised under Proposition 98 requires the Legislature to pass a bill and the governor to sign it. Assemblymember Mike Eng, D-Monterey Park, himself a part-time instructor and member of the Los Angeles College Faculty Guild, stepped up to carry AB 2277, the important funding legislation. After winning approval for AB 2277 in the Assembly Higher Education Committee, he presented it to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, where AB 2277

is now treading water in the “suspense file.”

What is the “backfill?”

How does such a shortfall happen? It occurs because the Department of Finance overestimates the amount of revenue coming in from local property taxes.  When a state budget is adopted, the Department estimates how much money will come from local property taxes. The state pays the remaining amount from the general fund.

Property owners begin making their tax payments on November 1. When that revenue is less than projected, and the state has no money to fund the education budget passed the previous year, every district in the state gets hit with a share of the shortfall.

The K-12 system is protected from the property tax shortfall. State law requires that the Legislature must automatically fund any shortfall for K–12 districts from general fund monies. This is called the “property tax backfill.”

The community college system is not protected from mistakes made by the Department of Finance. So almost every year there is a property tax shortfall, the community colleges have to lobby for legislation to backfill the funds already promised and budgeted.

This year is especially difficult. First, we have a serious state budget deficit. Second, the Department of Finance made a Titanic-sized overestimate of property tax revenues for this year. What’s more, as we move through the remainder of this fiscal year, the shortfall may grow. In a few short weeks, the projected shortfall has grown from $80 million to $90 million, an amount almost five times larger than any previous shortfall.

How did the Department of Finance so grossly overestimate property tax revenue? Could it have been the housing crisis, the declining economy, or an over-optimistic attempt to balance the budget technically, but ignore the harsh realities of structural flaws in the state tax and budget system?

How can we fix the problem?

No matter. When you ask most legislators about a community college property tax backfill for this year, there is mostly silence. CFT praises Assemblymember Eng who has ably taken on the backfill legislation, and understands the need for colleges to maintain classes and student services.

On April 30, Eng presented AB 2277 to the Assembly Appropriations Committee where CFT Community College Council President Carl Friedlander testified on behalf of CFT. The bill moved to the Assembly Appropriations “suspense file,” where it will remain until after the May Revision of the state budget. Bills that clear this file move to the Assembly floor for action. Bills that remain, unless a rule waiver is granted, die.

CFT and other advocacy groups will be lobbying, both in and out of the Capitol to move the bill out of the suspense file. We need everyone’s help to get

it through the next stage. We need to pass AB 2277 so that we can provide the best education possible, and our community college students have the opportunity to succeed.

Looking ahead, this year’s situation underscores the fact that the community colleges need a permanent property tax backfill. The colleges, too, need to be assured of receiving the funding promised.

— By Dean Murakami, psychology instructor at American River College in Sacramento, president of the Los Rios College Federation of Teachers, and vice president of the

CFT Community College Council

At press time, in his May Revision of the state budget, the governor proposed to backfill $75 million of the property tax shortfall for the colleges. CFT will be working the Capitol to urge passage of AB 2277 and to seek a long-term solution to the property tax shortfall. But our legislators still need to receive lots of mail, faxes, emails, and phone calls in support of AB 2277. You can help by explaining what budget cuts mean to you and your students.

Write a letter to your assemblymember and Mark Leno, chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, asking them to support AB 2277.