Governor’s bypass of Legislature should fuel students into action

Some car accidents you see coming and some come at you from your
blind spot, leaving no time to brace yourself. On Dec. 18,
University of California and Cal State University students and
administrators were blindsided.

Our new governor, less than 100 days in office, all but
eliminated outreach funding for the UC and CSU.

Even worse, he did so without any warning, a hearing or
knowledge of the wreckage it would make of access to higher
education for low-income, rural, urban and first-generation
students.

While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed to audit the
Department of Corrections ““ a good first step ““ he did
not even flinch before eliminating outreach. Meanwhile, the bloated
prison budget was not even touched.

Now students are taking the courageous step to challenge
Schwarzenegger to put his money where his mouth is, and demonstrate
with dollars how much he cares about access to public universities
for all Californians.

Students from UC Santa Barbara, UC Berkeley and UCLA, along with
the UC Student Association and civil rights proponents, the Equal
Justice Society and Californians for Justice, have filed suit
against the governor’s Dec. 18 actions and his November
executive order to lower the vehicle license fee.

Although many people believed he broke the law, it took the
courage of students to call him on it.

The lawsuit argues that Schwarzenegger violated state law by
lowering the license fee without enough money in the General Fund
to offset funding decreases. According to lead counsel Warrington
Parker III, the governor clearly lacked authority under California
constitutional and statutory law to cover the license fee decreases
by imposing over $148 million in budget cuts without legislative
approval.

To compensate cities and counties for shortfalls created by the
decrease in license fee revenue, the governor announced more than
$148 million in mid-year 2003-2004 budget cuts to education, health
and other services. The education budget was cut by more than $100
million, and $24 million was slashed from University of California
and California State University outreach programs.

This lawsuit is about fairness and democracy. What
Schwarzenegger did was not fair. He is playing politics with
education funding, and he did not make these decisions with careful
thought about what is best for California.

He terminated outreach funding because he promised to lower the
license fee during his campaign, without knowing if he could do it
in the first place, and without considering the effect it would
have on the other things he promised, like funding local government
and education.

Further, it is unlikely the fee was lowered just for the purpose
of giving individual households a small break in taxes. This
reduction in the license fee is partially about increasing
corporate profits ““ at the cost of destroying the public
services we Californians value.

Democratic government has a system of checks and balances to
prevent one person’s political agenda from trumping the needs
and concerns of the people.

That is why the legislative branch makes the laws and passes the
budget, while the governor has veto power and proposes the budget.
The realities of the Sacramento process cannot allow one person,
however strong, to unilaterally govern and legislate.

The coming months will be critical for the UC. Schwarzenegger
has already shown his willingness to decimate programs essential to
the mission and function of the university; and we as students must
stand up against these cuts.

Higher education is not a priority in Sacramento, but actions
such as this lawsuit will help take attention from the prison
unions and the corporate lobby, and bring it back to those who are
most affected by the proposed cuts ““ the communities of
California.

That’s why, as students, we need to exercise our political
muscle. If you didn’t have one before, here’s your
reason to vote. Only regular voters get the attention of
politicians, so vote in every election, and bring your friends.

Kaczmarek is the chair of the UC Student
Association.