Regents Endorse Governor's Tax Initiative

Although we posted an audio and some description of the July 18 morning session of the Regents in which they endorsed Prop 30, the governor’s tax initiative, you might want to read about it rather than listen.  The Regents acted after the strong urging of President Yudof.  Here is an excerpt from Larry Gordon’s story in the LA Times with a link:

…the governing board of the 10-campus system formally endorsed the governor's tax measure. "It's a simple question: Will UC be better off if it passes than if it doesn't? That's not just an answer of 'yes,' that's an answer of 'hell yes,' " said Regent Bonnie Reiss, who urged the endorsement.

After the regents' actions, Brown made a brief surprise appearance at the meeting at a UC San Francisco facility to thank them and urge students, faculty and staffers to vote for Proposition 30. "This is a matter of all hands on deck. Let's pull together for the university and for our country," said Brown, who holds a regent seat by virtue of his position but who has not attended a meeting, UC officials said, since he began his current term in January 2011.

Only one regent, Russell Gould, voted against the endorsement a few hours earlier, saying that the Brown measure would raise sales taxes for four years and some high-end income taxes for seven years while guaranteeing UC extra funds for only one year. "There is a major risk to the university," Gould said…

Full story at

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0719-uc-regents-20120719,0,5296805.story

The audio link (which does not contain the governor’s visit and starts during Yudof’s remarks) is at

http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/07/listen-to-audio-of-morning-session-of.html

[Brown showed up late in the day and would have been on the afternoon session but the live stream went off by that time.  The afternoon audio link is at

http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/07/listen-to-audio-of-regents-afternoon.html]

President Yudof was clearly praying for the Regents to back the governor’s tax initiative: