Over the past few years, all nine University of California schools have been facing repeated budget cuts, and the attending students have suffered through many tuition hikes. In fact, the story of budget cuts has been told far too many times in these past few years — not only in colleges, but also in local middle schools and high schools.
When taken as a whole , Proposition 30 was the right choice for California. Like any piece of monetary legislation, it has its flaws, but its benefits drastically outweigh the short term negatives, especially for teachers and students.
This November, Proposition 30 was approved by California voters as an initiated constitutional amendment by a 9.4 percent margin. The amendment involves a tax increase that is meant to help prevent schools from being hit with a new barrage of tax cuts next year, in which FUHSD would lose an additional 5 million dollars.
With the new funding, teachers across the state will not be threatened with pay or pension cuts, students in our state universities will not be subject to enormous tax hikes and the quality of our education will not deteriorate due to lack of proper funding. For everyone at MVHS, this amendment is most definitely positive.
It’s clear that the amendment is not perfect.In order to raise money for education, cuts have to be made somewhere else, or taxes have to be increased. In this case, the amendment calls for increase in taxes for Californians who make over $250 thousand $500 thousand and $1 million , with the tax increasing at different rates depending on which economic bracket an individual or a household is in. This tax includes income that comes from stocks, which will lower the incentive for people invest their savings in the stock market and consequently potentially reduce spending. The reduction in spending, could lead to continued slower growth in the economy.
In addition, this amendment increases sales taxes by a quarter of a cent for every dollar spent. Though this may seem inconsequential to the average consumer, this method of taxation is tougher on those with lower incomes who lose a greater percentage of their income to sale tax compared to those wealthier. The entire concept of a sales tax is a regressive tax, meaning any increase in sales taxes will intrinsically hurt those who are less well off. While it does place an extra burden on certain parts of the population, Prop 30 benefits schools which affects nearly everyone and because every citizen sends a child to school or attends school, it is only fair that they all pay for their children’s education.
Opponents of the proposition have touted these reasons as their primary points of opposition, but what is important to note is that this measure is only temporary. Indeed, in four years, the sales tax increase will expire, and in a mere seven, the income tax increases will too. By then, it is predicted that the U.S. economy as a whole will be booming and our schools, teachers and students will be better off than they are today. Since the tax is only temporary, it will help stabilize education until we are no longer in the economic ditch that we are in today.
