Contact: Jeff Barbosa
(916) 319-2020

SACRAMENTO – With California spending almost as much incarcerating inmates in prisons as it does educating students in higher education, Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico introduced legislation today to expand funding for community colleges, the California State University and University of California.

“California is on the wrong track heading in the wrong direction,” Majority Leader Torrico said.  “Our prisons are overflowing and yet we are turning away students at our universities.  The Master Plan for Higher Education is becoming a distant memory.  This is not a sustainable path for California.  We must invest more in higher education.  It is a solid down payment on our economic future.”

The recently passed state budget contained a 10 percent across the board cut for the UC and CSU systems and reductions for community colleges.  

The increased funding from the bill, AB 656, would be derived from a severance tax on oil extracted within California.  California, the third-largest oil producing state in the country, is the only state where oil is extracted without a tax.

“My bill will bring California in line with more than 20 other oil-extracting states,” Torrico said.  “When other states are charging over 12 percent from multi-billion dollar oil companies, we should be doing more to receive funds for our natural resources.”

AB 656 would create the California Higher Education Endowment Corporation to administer the funds generated by the oil severance tax and to allocate them to community colleges, the CSU and UC.  The endowment would be overseen by a board consisting of representatives from higher education, the state Assembly, the state Senate, the state treasurer, faculty and students.