Bill to Cut Tuition Goes Down the Drain

The bill sponsored by assembly speaker John Pérez that would close a corporate tax loophole with revenue dedicated to tuition cuts went down the drain last night.  An earlier post on this blog noted that a version of it had gotten through the assembly – despite needing a 2/3 vote.  (Pérez got an independent and one renegade GOP member to vote for it, giving him the 2/3.)  But getting 2/3 in the senate, despite all sorts of manipulations was not possible.

…(A) closely watched bill may have been too unwieldy to gain orbit. That was Assembly Speaker John Pérez's gambit for new corporate taxes to fund middle-class college scholarships. By Friday night, the bill had been rejiggered to earmark some of the expected corporate tax dollars for paying off K-12 school debts, to replace a planned timber tax, revive the Healthy Families health care plan for low-income families.  And those were just for starters -- as it may have helped keep some tobacco company taxes lower. Pérez, who worked virtually every angle on the bill, couldn't wrangle enough votes on the so-called mega deal. It officially died just after 1:00 a.m., one of only a few bills eligible for extra hours past the midnight deadline…

Full article at http://www.news10.net/capitol/article/207606/525/Big-bills-live-die-as-Legislature-adjourns

Readers of this blog will know that the same corporate tax loophole would be closed by a proposition on the state ballot in November, but the revenues under that proposition are not earmarked for tuition reduction.  Our earlier post on this bill is at:
http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/08/could-legislature-pass-last-minute-tax.html

Anyway, down the drain went the tuition bill, despite having the votes in one house of the legislature: